Three of the top four drivers on the combined Cooper Tires Indy Lights Grand Prix of Toronto time-sheet all have experience at Exhibition Place, but the top half of the 14 car field is VERY close. The top-seven times are all within three-tenths of a second of the 1:07.778 lap that Carlin sophomore Felix Serralles set at the very end of the session, and the top 11 drivers are all within one second.

Felix Serralles led the combined Indy Lights timesheet in Toronto (Photo courtesy of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, LLC Photography)

Serralles is racing in Toronto for the second year, and had a podium in 2015 race #1 nullified after his Belardi Auto Racing car failed technical inspection.

Only five-hundredths of a second behind Serralles was the second Felix in the field. Felix Rosenqvist, who has shown his prowess on street circuits with multiple wins in Formula 3 on the Pau and Macau street circuits, told TSO that the 11-turn, 1.786-mile Exhibition Place temporary street course is by far the bumpiest circuit he’s ever raced on. Those bumps didn’t seem to impact the Stefan Johansson mentored Swedish based driver, who is making his first visit to Toronto.

Championship contender Ed Jones had the third quickest time and was only one-tenth of a second behind his Carlin teammate.

First session recap: 

Unlike the Pro Mazda drivers before them, the 14 Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tire drivers learned from their younger peers and took it easy for the first half of the session.

Half-way through the session Felix Serralles and Zachary Claman de Melo both had spins, but both were able to continue.

TSO was able to chat with Carlin sophomore Ed Jones after the session. The 21 year-old, who finished fifth and third in the 2015 Indy Lights races at this event, was very effusive in his praise of the new Turn 8 through Turn 11 section of the track, explaining that is really lets you wring the car out in attempt to drive through the bumps.

Ed Jones is having fun wheeling it through the final section of the newly reconfigured Turns 8 – Turn 11 on the Exhibition Place street circuit (Photo courtesy of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, LLC Photography)

Another Indy Lights driver we chatted with wasn’t quite so complimentary in his assessment of the track this year, explaining that the bumps are so bad this year it made it: a) hard to see the braking markers and b) his feet kept falling of the pedals.

After missing the last two events at Road America and Iowa Speedway due to commitments with Mercedes, Felix Rosenqvist led the opening session during his first visit to Toronto. The reigning FIA Formula 3 champion was followed in the top five by: teammate Zach Veach, championship leader Ed Jones, reigning Pro Mazda champion Santiago Urrutia, and sophomore Kyle Kaiser.

Dean Stoneman, who is currently second in the championship and is making his first trip to the street of Toronto, was decidedly mid-pack in eighth.

Session 2

The second Indy Lights practice session saw the 14 drivers able to get into a good groove with 27 minutes of straight green flag time, with Kyle Kaiser and Andre Negrao turning 19 laps each on the 1.786-mile circuit.

Juan Piedrahita, Claman de Melo and Rosenqvist all had contact with the barriers. None of the contact was serious, but the session did end three minutes early with the No. 14 Belardi Auto Racing machine of Rosenqvist nosed into the barriers.

Claman de Melo led the three Canadians on the opening day of practice for the Indy Lights double header in Toronto. The 18 year-old ended the day in seventh on the time-sheet only 0.3737 seconds behind leader Serralles. However, the Montreal, Quebec native did have slight contact that damaged his rear wing.

Zachary Claman de Melo (Juncos Racing) was the quickest of the three Canadians on the opening day of the Honda Indy Toronto (Photo courtesy of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, LLC Photography)

Fellow “Canuck” Garett Grist, who is taking part in his first street circuit event in the Mazda powered Dallara IL-15, told TSO that he has been taking it fairly easy this weekend. The Grimsby, Ontario native who has one win at this track in Pro Mazda, ended up with the 11th quickest time of the day.

Garett Grist from nearby Grimsby, Ontario is one of three Canadians in the Indy Lights field at Toronto and is making his first “Lights” start on a street circuit (Photo courtesy of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, LLC Photography)

Toronto, Ontario born Dalton Kellett is the third Canadian Indy Lights driver, and the Queens University graduate was 14th on the time sheet, but was still only 1.7 seconds behind Serrallles

Toronto born Dalton Kellett hops into the No. 28 Andretti Autosport Mazda/Dallara at his home track (Photo courtesy of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, LLC Photography)

Cooper Tires Indy Lights Grand Prix of Toronto combined results:

There is an Indy Lights owners meeting this evening, so we should have some more news tomorrow.

Qualifying for the Indy Lights drivers begins at 8:25am on Saturday morning and the first of two races takes place 12:25pm.

The Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires series had two practice sessions today for tomorrow’s Indy Lights Iowa Challenge presented by Cooper Tires.

In the day’s first practice session, action was delayed because one of the ARCA series cars laid down fluids in the session immediately proceeding.

The cleanup, along with a live TV broadcast for Verizon IndyCar qualifying, meant the session was shortened to just 24 minutes.

The session ran clean, and Dean Stoneman was the quickest driver. Both Stoneman and Juan Piedrahita were faster than the lap record (162.618) that Max Chilton set last year. Many – but not all – of the cars did qualifying simulations late in the morning session.

Dean Stoneman. Photos @ Indianapolis Motor Speedway, LLC Photography

Indy Lights Practice #1 Results:

Pos Car Driver Best Speed Total Laps
1 27 Dean Stoneman 163.290 26
2 2 Juan Piedrahita 163.147 34
3 11 Ed Jones 162.437 19
4 13 Zachary Claman De Melo 162.075 39
5 55 Santiago Urrutia 161.954 29
6 4 Felix Serralles 161.848 44
7 18 Kyle Kaiser 161.723 35
8 5 Zach Veach 161.669 15
9 22 Neil Alberico 161.272 33
10 28 Dalton Kellett 160.431 33
11 51 Shelby Blackstock 158.995 30
12 77 Heamin Choi 155.969 40
13 17 Andre Negrao 151.668 44

The Indy Lights cars got that five minutes back, as the second session started five minutes earlier to compensate.

Felix Serralles brought out an early yellow, getting sideways and brushing the Turn 4 wall. According to Rob Howden of IndyCar Radio, Felix’s left rear wheel bearing let loose on his Carlin entry and caused the loss of control.

Ed Jones got to make a pit stop during the session to remove a plastic bag that had gotten stuck on his front wing.

The session came to an early end when Kyle Kaiser made contact with the Turn 4 wall with about five minutes left.

Kaiser lost the rear of the car and first made contact with the right rear before also catching the right front. That will be a fair amount of repair for the Juncos Racing crew tonight.

Kyle later told us that he’d finished a qualifying simulation but had stayed out on track. He wondered if perhaps the tire pressures caught him out.

Kaiser, who was checked/cleared/released, was happy with his race car before the accident. He will have a chance to check the repairs in tomorrow’s qualifying session.

Ed Jones. Photos @ Indianapolis Motor Speedway, LLC Photography

Ed Jones, who was quickest in the session, predicts that this year’s race will be much like last year’s race. Tire degradation will become a factor around Lap 60, and the ability to negotiate traffic will also be a factor in the 115 lap race.

Afternoon Indy Lights Practice Results:

Pos Car Driver Best Speed Total Laps
1 11 Ed Jones 162.517 55
2 55 Santiago Urrutia 162.124 68
3 5 Zach Veach 161.895 40
4 18 Kyle Kaiser 161.790 49
5 2 Juan Piedrahita 161.678 45
6 22 Neil Alberico 161.182 37
7 13 Zachary Claman De Melo 160.644 57
8 17 Andre Negrao 159.800 61
9 27 Dean Stoneman 159.688 62
10 77 Heamin Choi 159.629 56
11 4 Felix Serralles 158.825 6
12 28 Dalton Kellett 157.988 53
13 51 Shelby Blackstock 156.981 42

The Indy Lights cars qualify tomorrow at 11am local time (noon Eastern) before racing at 2:15pm (3:15 Eastern).

What came as no surprise, the start of the Indy Lights race was declared to be wet by race officials.

Ed Jones, who started on pole for the sixth time this season, was able to tip-toe his way through the first three corners ahead of the 13 drivers behind him that were were side-by-side through Turn 5. Everybody made it cleanly through the first lap, but eventual winner Urrutia was the biggest loser when got shuffled back to sixth place from his outside front row starting spot.

The top 10 after the first lap were: Jones, Veach, Negrao, Dean Stoneman, Felix Serralles, Urrutia, Kyle Kaiser, Zachary Claman de Melo, and Juan Piedrahita.

Over the next five laps Jones was able to maintain a one second lead over Veach, until yesterday’s winner spun in Turn 5 while he was pushing to catch Jones. The eventual podium finisher fell back four spots to sixth.

At the very end of the same lap, the No. 28 Andretti Autosport machine of Dalton Kellett looped it into the gravel trap in Turn 14 and needed the help of the Holmatro Safety Team to get restarted. The Canadian driver finished the race in 12th, one lap behind the leaders.

The top five under yellow were: Jones, Stoneman, Negrao, Serralles, and Urrutia

On the Lap 7 restart, Jones was able to get through Turn 1 and Turn 3 ahead of now second place Stoneman, but the No. 27 Andretti Autosport was able to use the additional horsepower that push-to-pass generates in his turbo charged 2.0L Mazda engine to pull in front of the Carlin No. 11 before the end of the Moraine Sweep.

Jones was able to out brake Stoneman and get through Turn 5 first, but Stoneman used a textbook over-under to get along side of Jones, when the two drivers got together on the uphill run to Turn 6.

TSO was able to talk with both drivers after the race and not surprisingly they had differing opinions on what happened.

“It was quite clear what he (Jones) did,” explained Stoneman. “It’s very obvious the he physically drove me off the track.”

“I thought I made a really great move into Turn 5, using the boost around the outside,” added Stoneman. “Jones came back at me on the brakes, which I was expecting because I was more focused on the exit. And as you could see I got the cutback on him, and he literally drove me off the track.”

On the restart, Dean got around and past me going by, then in the braking zone I went down the inside. I locked up a little but was able to keep the position. After Turn 5, I went to defend and it was maybe a bit too much,” admitted Jones. “That’s not really a passing spot and when Dean drove off the track, I touched his wing. Once his wing was damaged he realized that it was over for him and he tried to run me off in Turn 6, and that’s what caused the pileup.

Serralles and Negrao were both innocent bystanders in the incident with Jones bouncing off of the No. 17 Schmidt Peterson Motorsports with Curb-Agajanian machine of Negrao and slowing down so much Serralles rear-ended his teammate.

In his IndyCar Radio interview Serralles blamed both Jones and Stoneman, and thought that Stoneman braked checked Jones in Turn 6.

From Negrao’s standpoint, the incident at Turn 6 was initiated by Ed Jones.

Serralles and Jones both made it back to pits where the Carlin crew went to work on both cars. The damage to the No. 4 of Serralles was too serious for the Puerto Rican driver to continue, finishing in last place. The No. 11 of Jones required timely repairs but he was able to get back out on track to end up finishing 13th.

Coming to the restart, Stoneman slowed down not knowing that he had suffered a cut tire during his contact with Jones.

Urrutia, who was reminded by his crew that he had push-to-pass left just as he was coming to the restart and he was able to get by the wounded Stoneman and Negrao before Turn 1.

Stoneman was forced to pit due to his flat tire and he told TSO that they were 50/50 on whether or not to move to slicks or stay on the wet weather tires. The No. 28 eventually rejoined the field a lap down with Cooper Tire slicks.

The call to go to slicks was the right one as Stoneman was able to un-lap himself, make up two spots and turn the quickest lap of the race, gaining him three extra championship points.

The remainder of the race ran green with the 10 drivers still on wet weather Cooper Tires doing their best to keep their car underneath them.

Over the second-half of the race, Urrutia was able to manage his tires and grow his gap up to 8.1 seconds. This marked the second win of the year for the Uruguayan and the fifth of his two season Mazda Road To Indy career.

The podium was the first in the United States for Negrao. The GP2 veteran has spent the majority of his career racing in Europe. Negrao told TSO that he thinks this will really help them build some momentum for the rest of the year.

Veach, who stood on an Mazda Road To Indy podium for the 24th time, was not pleased with how he drove in the wet, but was happy that he was the only Indy Lights driver on the podium in both races this weekend.

Most teams and drivers now head to Iowa Speedway for a test on Tuesday before a 100 mile race at the ⅞ mile high-banked oval on July 10, 2016.

The top five in points after the race are:

1. Ed Jones –> 212
2. Dean Stoneman —> 194
3. Santiago Urrutia —> 190
4. Kyle Kaiser —> 174
5. Felix Serralles —> 169

Mazda Indy Lights Grand Prix of Road America Presented by Cooper Tires Race #2 results

Good morning from a very damp Road America where it rained extensively over night. The second Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tire race of the weekend is scheduled to get going at 8:55am.

TSO did learn that the No. 22 Rising Star Racing/Penn Grade Motor Oil/ Mobe/Doug Mockett & Company of Neil Alberico will have a new power plant for today’s race. The Carlin crew was busy late into the night changing the Mazda turbo-charged 2.o liter power plant not once, but twice. After the crew replaced the first engine, Alberico was allowed to do an install lap after yesterday’s track activity. Unfortunately, the crew found something in that data that necessitated another engine.

Starting Line-Up for the Mazda Indy Lights Grand Prix of Road America Presented by Cooper Tires Race #2

1. Ed Jones – Carlin
2. Santiago Urrutia – Schmidt Peterson Motorsports with Curb-Agajanian
3. Zach Veach – Belardi Auto Racing
4. Andre Negrao – Schmidt Peterson Motorsports with Curb-Agajanian
5. Dean Stoneman – Andretti Autosport
6. Felix Serralles – Carlin
7. Kyle Kaiser – Juncos Racing
8. Garett Grist – Team Pelfrey
9. Juan Piedrahita – Team Pelfrey
10. Zachary Claman de Melo – Juncos Racing
11. Shelby Blackstock – Andretti Autosport
12. James French – Belardi Auto Racing
13. Neil Alberico – Carlin
14. Dalton Kellett – Andretti Autosport

Here are the points headed into this morning’s race. With what will be a wet track, this race certainly has the potential to shake-up the standings.

Relieved, is how Belardi Auto Racing veteran Zach Veach said he felt after his first trip to the top step of an Indy Lights podium in 22 months. The Stockdale, Ohio native admitted that he has struggled to come to grips with the Mazda powered Dallara IL-15 after winning three times in the previous generation Indy Lights machinery.

Starting on pole, Veach got a great start and beat the rest of the 14-car Indy Lights field to Turn 1. However, the action behind the veteran driver was certainly action packed.

Santiago Urrutia was the biggest loser on the first lap. The Uruguayan lost second position to Ed Jones in the Turn 1 and then proceeded to lose third position to Dean Stoneman in Turn 3. Urrutia then made an effort to get back by Stoneman in the downhill run to Turn 5, but Stoneman and his No. 27 squeezed reigning Pro Mazda champion to the outside, forcing him wide into the gravel trap. The trip off trap meant Urrutia dropped all the way back to 10th.

Zach Veach leads the 14 car Indy Lights field into Turn 3 on Lap 1, while Dean Stoneman makes the pass on Santiago Urrutia. (Photo courtesy of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, LLC Photography)

The top five at the end of the first lap were: Veach, Jones, Stoneman, Andre Negrao and Kyle Kaiser.

On Lap 2, Stoneman got a good run on Jones off of The Carousel and The Kink and the two drivers went side-by-side through Canada Corner and Billy Mitchell Bend before Stoneman took over the position as the cars made the steep climb to the start-finish line.

Stoneman’s hold on the second spot didn’t last long when Jones was able to get a good tow headed to Turn 1 and was able to make a last minute pass to get the second position back.

On that same lap, Andre Negrao was able to get beside Stoneman headed down the Moraine Sweep to Turn 5, and in almost an exact replay to what happened between Stoneman and Urrutia one the first lap, the No. 27 once again squeezed his competitor onto the gator strips and off track. Negrao, a 24 year-old Brazillian dropped back to 10th, and was not able to recover any more positions, finishing the race in 10th.

For his actions, Stoneman was handed a five-second post race penalty. The Croydon, England native did apologize after the race for the contact and explained that he didn’t know that Negrao was beside him and that he was just moving onto his braking line.

The on-track action settled down until Lap 7, when Stoneman, who had been pressuring Jones for a number of laps was able to finally make the pass to move onto the middle step of the podium.

Further back in the field Indy Lights debutante Garett Grist was able to pass his fellow Canadian Dalton Kellett going into Canada Corner. Kellett got loose at corner exit and backed his No. 28 Andretti Autosport Mazda powered Dallara into the tires bringing out the first and only yellow of the race.

The top five under yellow were: Veach, Stoneman, Jones, Felix Serralles and Kaiser.

Felix Serralles in the Carlin No. 4 gets crossed up at corner exit. The Indy Lights drivers have all talked about how tough the cars are to drive around the 14-Turn, 4.014-mile Road America road course (Photo courtesy of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, LLC Photography)

After building a five second lead Veach had to defend from Stoneman on the restart, but was able to get through Turn 1 and build back his lead

Behind the first two on the restart, Serralles was able to get by his Carlin teammate Ed Jones, who was nursing front wing damage, for the final spot on the podium. Further back in the field, Kaiser, Urrutia and Piedrahita were waging a fierce three-car battle heading into Turn 5. Piedrahita got to the corner first, but quickly found himself facing the wrong direction after being spun from behind by Urrutia. This time, it was Urrutia who was hit with the five second post race-penalty.

While Stoneman was able to overcome his penalty and finish second, Urrutia’s five second penalty really hurt him. The Montevideo, Uruguay native took the white flag in fifth but fell back to ninth after the five-second penalty was applied.

After an action packed first half of the race the second half of the race settled into a nice rhythm with Veach holding a steady lead at just over 2.5 second. Behind him, the best battle on track was between Kaiser and Shelby Blackstock. Blackstock was able to make a pass of Kaiser, but carried too much speed at the exit of Turn 3 and spun off track. Blackstock was able to continue but finished a disappointing 13th.

Jones, who led Andretti Autosport’s Stoneman by 29 points headed into the race will start the second race of the weekend with a 23 point lead.

The biggest championship mover was Felix Serralles who used his third podium of 2016 to move from fifth to third on the points table.

Heading into the weekend, only three drivers were within 50 points of Jones, but after today’s race five drivers had moved to within the half-century mark of the Indy Lights championship leader.

Relief and joy were the emotions exhibited by Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tire driver Zach Veach who used a final lap flier to win his first pole of the year with a lap at 1:52.941. That was only one-hundredth of a second quicker than reigning Pro Mazda presented by Cooper Tire champion Santiago Urrutia.

The pole is the Stockdale, Ohio natives fourth overall in Indy Lights and seventh overall in the Mazda Road To Indy.

The 21 year-old explained that despite being the quickest in the practice session this morning his Belardi Auto Racing engineer Kent Boyer made a big change in the car. Veach wasn’t so sure about the changes in during his first new tire stint, but he admitted that he was overdriving the car and that he was less aggressive on his second new Cooper Tire run and that he kept getting quicker each lap.

Normally when a track record falls by 12 seconds it would be a huge deal, but in this case the Indy Lights track record of 2:04.812 was set in 1990, the last time Indy Lights visited Road America, by Mike Snow.

The half-hour session began promptly at 2:10pm and after a handful of laps most of the drivers came in to make a few adjustments before heading back out to see if the changes helped with the car balance and allow them to go quicker.

At the halfway point of the half-hour session the top five were: Santiago Urrutia, Zach Veach, Ed Jones, Dean Stoneman, and Juan Piedrahita .

With only 10 minutes left in the session, the majority of the drivers went to fresh Cooper sticker tires.

With five minutes left in the session, the times were dropping on each lap and the top five were: Urrutia, Jones, Negao, Kyle Kaiser and Stoneman.

Just when it looked like Urrutia would take his maiden Indy Lights pole, the veteran Veach went one-hundredth of a second quicker than Urrutia, who did not get a chance to try and snag the top spot back when he went off course on his final lap. He told IndyCar radio that he might have damaged the floor on his car doing so.

Points leader Jones will start third which is two spots ahead of his closest championship contender Stoneman.

GP2 veteran Negrao will start fourth, his best start of the year.

Of note was the impressive effort put in by series debutant Garett Grist (Belardi Auto Racing) who is making his first Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tire start and first visit to Road America.  The 21 year-olds best lap was less than a second behind his pole winning teammate.

Qualifying results for Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tire Race #1