Iowa Speedway will host the third and final oval event of the Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires season July 18.
Jack Harvey, Spencer Pigot and Ed Jones are separated by just 29 points as they chase a top prize of a guaranteed entry in three rounds of the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series – including the historic 100th Indianapolis 500 – but as anyone who saw the July 12 race at The Milwaukee Mile will attest, there are plenty of other talented youngsters likely to be challenging for the top step of the podium in this weekend’s 12th round of the 16-race season.
Harvey, driving for seven-time championship-winning team Schmidt Peterson Motorsports with Curb-Agajanian, extended his points lead at Milwaukee by three despite finishing outside the top three for only the third time this season. Harvey, 22, finished second in the championship during his rookie campaign in 2014 and already has an oval race victory to his credit this season, winning the Freedom 100 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in May.
Pigot, 21, from Orlando, Fla., has won more races than anyone else this year (four) for Juncos Racing. He was also the class of the field at Milwaukee, qualifying on the pole with a two-lap record average in excess of 150 mph. Pigot posted the fastest race lap too, only to be restricted to an unrepresentative seventh-place finish due to a broken fifth gear.
Jones, 20, an Englishman based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, hasn’t won since sweeping the first three races of the season – two on the streets of St. Petersburg, Fla., and then again on the streets of Long Beach, Calif. The feat was all the more remarkable for the fact his team, Carlin, also was making its debut in North America. Jones has struggled in the two previous oval races but will have been buoyed by the performance of teammate and fellow rookie Max Chilton at Milwaukee. The ex-F1 racer made strong progress, climbing from 10th on the grid to sixth, just over one second behind the final podium finisher.
Former European Formula 3 contender Felix Serralles, from Ponce, Puerto Rico, broke through at Milwaukee, scoring his first win and the first of this season for the defending champion team, Belardi Auto Racing. Teammate Juan Piedrahita, from Bogota, Colombia, also claimed a season-best finish of third on the one-mile oval.
Serralles, who had qualified sixth, charged through the field to pass the youngest driver on the grid, 18-year-old RC Enerson, from New Port Richey, Fla., who led no fewer than 88 of the 100 laps for the Schmidt Peterson team but ultimately had to settle for second. The result represented Enerson’s third podium finish of his rookie season.
Other challengers will include Scott Anderson (Schmidt Peterson), from Fort Collins, Colo., who scored a career-best third place finish at Indianapolis in May, and Californian Kyle Kaiser (Juncos Racing).