Indy Lights looks to surpass former glory

Sept 6. Indy Lights Champ Gabby Chaves in Dallara IL-15 testing on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He ran 190 miles with a best speed of 191.900 mph, which unofficially broke the Indy Lights track record. via Indy Lights Facebook

Mazda will be badging the Indy Lights series in 2015 and beyond, giving the series a needed boost as it attempts a phoenix like recovery from obscurity. The news makes another in a long-line of positive announcements since Dan Andersen took over the Indy Lights Series in 2013

After a long, languishing slide into obscurity under Tony George’s leadership Andersen Promotions has begun the long rebuilding process, and has had more success than I would have imagined by this stage. Andersen set out to beef up the series by landing three key sponsorships, and now having landed tire and engine partners in Cooper Tires and Mazda only lacks a title sponsor.

After letting the schedule fall to as little as twelve effectively untelevised races and eight-full time drivers Andersen is wisely using double-headers to boost the schedule to sixteen events. I’m a fan of double headers for support series because it’s a cost-effective way of getting the drivers more experience at a lower cost. Also, by only having the double-headers at natural-terrain road courses reduces the potential of crash damage.

For those unhappy that there are only three ovals on the 2015 schedule, Andersen plans on changing that. On his verified account at Trackforum he said this.

"I like ovals a lot. Many teams in the Indy Lights series rely on drivers and the support they bring, and at this point in time, the reality is that there are too many new drivers unfamiliar with oval racing who opt out of the high speed oval events. Witness last year’s eight car field at Pocono. In time, we hope to see that reality change, but ignoring it would hurt our teams, and we are in the midst of reviving this series, no need to challenge anyone more than necessary. Pocono was a great venue in terms of the track ownership, its operations folks and the geography of the venue, but choosing a short oval like Iowa for 2015 made more sense. Once the series has been restored and we’ve made it beyond today’s challenges and issues, we’d love to expand the schedule and add one or two more oval venues, but we must proceed cautiously and patiently."

The field is also growing. Currently there are twelve teams that should combine for 14 to 25 cars, and potentially one or two Verizon Indycar Series teams still joining. This will finally make for an interesting race, and a potentially deep field.

I’ve been saying for a long time that Indylights needs to be both a feeder series and an enjoyable undercard in the same way the Xfinity series is for Sprint Cup. It’s not there yet, but it’s much closer to where it should be than I expected.

Here’s a rundown of the teams and driver lineup:

Returning

Belardi Auto Racing: Belardi is the defending series champion, having propelled Gabby Chaves to the crown this season. They have publicly confirmed their plans to run two cars, and have confirmed Felix Serralles for one of the rides

Serralles, 22, Puerto Rican. Serralles’ most success to date has been finishing third in British Formula Three with Fortec Motorsports in 2012.

Andretti Autosport: The “other” big name in Indy Lights is one of the two teams to pry a championship away from Schmidt’s squad. Andretti will likely return with two cars, and has already named Shelby Blackstock to drive one of their cars. Andretti has a full field of Mazda Road to Indy talent in his table to choose from in order to fill the other seat, or could take another driver entirely.

Blackstock, 24, American, is probably best known for being the son of Reba McEntire. Blackstock has been racing for four years, and finished fourth in Pro Mazda this year with no wins.

Bryan Herta Autosport: Herta fielded a single car for about two-thirds of the season with Lloyd Reed and Ryan Phinny. Other than announcing they will run in Indy Lights there hasn’t been any news about Herta’s Indy Lights program.

Schmidt Peterson Motorsports: The most successful team in Indy Lights history returns for another year. Having run three to four cars over the past few years there isn’t indication yet how many cars he will run. This could be announced at PRI on Thursday.

Ethan Ringel, 20, American. Ringel has made a smattering of starts in American and European ladder series over the past four years without distinguishing himself. He made one start with Team Moore last year before saying he would wait for the new car.
Jack Harvey is rumored to be working a return to Indy Lights for 2015. Harvey came on strong at the end of 2014, winning the double headers at Sonoma and Mid-Ohio. If his funding from the British Racing Steps Foundation continues he should be able to pick is spot, and I can’t imagine a better spot for him to return than SPM.

Team Moore Racing: Moore Racing is sort of the Dale Coyne of the Indy Lights World. They almost always run two cars, and always make their announcement fairly close to beginning of the season. I would expect one car, perhaps two.

Fan Force United: Supposedly fielding a Verizon Indycar Series team for Stephan Wilson in 2015, but has been rather quiet since making that announcement. FFU ran one car for Scott Anderson last year, and Anderson finished eight of eight full-time drivers.

New Teams

Carlin Motorsport: Carlin bills itself as the most successful team outside of Formula One, and with a list of former drivers like Takuma Sato, Will Power, Sebastien Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo, Danil Kvyat, Kevin Magnussen, Nico Roseburg, and Felipe Nasr it’s hard to argue against it. Carlin has apparently set its sights on the Verizon Indycar Series and will start with an Indy Lights effort in 2015. They have already confirmed Ed Jones, and I’d expect them to field a second car for another European driver.

Jones, 19, dual citizenship between United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. Jones has made over 100 starts in the lower tiers of the European ladder series without distinguishing himself. He did win the 2013 European F3 Open season, and if Indycar’s apparently desired Duabi street race comes to fruition next year having a Emirati native in the field has an obvious marketing benefit.

Juncos Racing: One of the strongest teams in Pro-Mazda and USF-2000 Juncos Racing is the first team to confirm it’s driver and sponsor lineup for 2015. Juncos will move up with Americans Spencer Pigot and Kyle Kaiser

Pigot, 21, American, won a shoot for the Pro Mazda championship with up and coming Canadian Scott Hargrove. Pigot is a former Andretti Autosport driver, has represented America in the U.K.’s Formula Ford Festival, captured the USF 2000 2012 Winter Fest and has won on every level he’s competed on
Kaiser, 18, has worked his way up the Mazda Road to Indy having started in carting when he was seven. He’s come up the ladder pretty much a year at a time, and while he doesn’t have his teammate’s resume he’s a more than capable driver with an obvious upside.

8Star Motorsports: A fast-growing PC team in the United Sportscar Championship has announced their expansion to Indy Lights. Because they’ve done so well in the PC class, which features amateur and professional drivers I would expect them to field two cars. While it hasn’t been announced I would be shocked if Sean Rayhall didn’t get a ride here.

Rayhall, 19, American. Both Rayhall and I from Georgia, and so I’ve been following his career for a while now. For the longest time I thought he was going to go in the NASCAR route because he was racing legends series at Atlanta and Charlotte, but then he got hooked up with 8Star. In addition to two wins in IMSA’s PC class Rayhall will probably have more oval starts than any driver in the Indy Lights field. Conceivably, he could be the most experienced driver in the field.

McCormack Racing: I didn’t know much about this team, so I started digging. Their website shows two IL-9 chassis and have pictures of Sage Karam’s Indy 500 ride next to transporters that read McCormack Racing. Their address is the same as the old Menards Racing shop, where it appears that they’re renting a garage bay. They also have marketing material up for the Indy 500, so maybe we’re looking at a two-car effort with an Indy 500 entry.

Conquest Racing: Long time team owner in both the Indycar and Champ Car returns to open wheel racing after a three-year lay off. They did participate in the initial testing of the new chassis. There have been little detail about the team, but given Conquest’s history I would expect them to run two cars with European drivers who bring money to the team.

Dragon Motor Racing: Not related to Jay Penske’s Dragon Racing, Dragon Motor Racing was apparently founded in 2014 in order to help Australian drivers climb the ladder of motorsports. Their website doesn’t give much info on their future plans, but there is no shortage of talented Australian drivers to choose from

Potential field: Even assuming five teams field a single-full time entry we should see at least 19 cars with a cap of about 25 with potentially more at the Freedom 100. I see 18-21: Juncos-2, Andretti-2, Belardi-2, Fan Force United-1, Team Moore-1, Schmidt Peterson-3, Herta-1, Carlin-2, Dragon-1, 8Star-2, McCormack-2, Conquest-2,