The 2012 Indy Lights season was the 27th season of the series and the eleventh sanctioned by IndyCar , acting as the primary support series for the IZOD IndyCar Series . It began March 24, 2012 in St. Petersburg .[ 1]
The championship was dominated by the Sam Schmidt Motorsports team with French driver Tristan Vautier winning the championship by eight points ahead of experienced Argentine team mate Esteban Guerrieri . SSM drivers won seven out of the twelve races over the course of the season and Vautier also claimed the rookie of the year title. Colombian driver Gustavo Yacamán from Team Moore Racing finished a tight battle for third with countryman Sebastián Saavedra .[ 2]
Team and driver chart [ edit ] IndyCar announced that all Firestone Indy Lights Series races would be broadcast on the NBC Sports Network in 2012.[ 21]
Rnd Date Race Name Track Location 1 March 24 St. Petersburg 100 Streets of St. Petersburg St. Petersburg, Florida 2 April 1 Grand Prix of Alabama Barber Motorsports Park Birmingham, Alabama 3 April 15 Grand Prix of Long Beach Streets of Long Beach Long Beach, California 4 May 25 Firestone Freedom 100 Indianapolis Motor Speedway Speedway, Indiana 5 June 2 Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix Belle Isle Detroit, Michigan 6 June 15 Firestone Indy Lights 100 Milwaukee Mile West Allis, Wisconsin 7 June 22 Sukup 100 Iowa Speedway Newton, Iowa 8 July 7 Toronto 100 Exhibition Place Toronto , Ontario 9 July 21 Edmonton 100 Edmonton City Centre Airport Edmonton, Alberta 10 August 5 Grand Prix de Trois-Rivières Circuit Trois-Rivières Trois-Rivières, Quebec 11 September 1 Grand Prix of Baltimore Streets of Baltimore Baltimore, Maryland 12 September 15 Auto Club Speedway Foundation 100 Auto Club Speedway Fontana, California
Oval/Speedway
Road Course/Street Circuit
Color Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green 4th & 5th place Light Blue 6th–10th place Dark Blue Finished (Outside Top 10) Purple Did not finish Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Brown Withdrawn (Wth) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Blank Did not participate (DNP) Not competing
In-line notation Bold Pole position (1 point) Italics Ran fastest race lap * Led most race laps (2 points) 1 Qualifying cancelled no bonus point awarded Rookie of the Year Rookie
Position 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 Points 50 40 35 32 30 28 26 24 22 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10
Ties in points broken by number of wins, or best finishes. ^ "12 races on 2012 calendar" . Firestone Indy Lights . IndyCar . December 27, 2011. Retrieved December 28, 2011 .[permanent dead link ] ^ "Vautier claims championship by 8 points over Guerrieri" . indycar.com . IndyCar. 16 September 2012. Archived from the original on 2012-09-18. Retrieved 16 September 2012 . ^ "Victor Carbone continues with Schmidt in Indy Lights" . Racer . Haymarket Publications . December 29, 2011. Retrieved December 29, 2011 . ^ "Sam Schmidt Motorsports signs Webb" . Firestone Indy Lights . IndyCar . December 1, 2011. Archived from the original on 2012-01-03. Retrieved December 29, 2011 . ^ "Esteban Guerrieri ci riprova con Sam Schmidt Motorsports" [Esteban Guerrieri is back with Sam Schmidt Motorsports]. stopandgo.tv (in Italian). Stop&Go. March 15, 2012. Archived from the original on January 3, 2017. Retrieved March 15, 2012 . ^ "Vautier joins Schmidt for 2012 Indy Lights season" . Racer . Haymarket Publications . November 18, 2011. Retrieved December 29, 2011 . ^ El Tigrillo Yacamán se queda en la Indy Lights , el Colombiano , March 6, 2012, Retrieved March 6, 2012 (in Spanish) ^ Ostella Joins Team Moore in Firestone Indy Lights Series , David Ostella PR , January 2, 2012, Retrieved January 2, 2012 ^ a b Muñoz, Castenada Join Indy Lights for St. Pete Archived March 27, 2012, at the Wayback Machine , "RACER.com", March 19, 2012, Retrieved March 19, 2012 ^ "Andries to debut at Long Beach" . Racer . Haymarket Publications . April 10, 2012. Retrieved April 10, 2012 . ^ "Juncos Racing acquires Davey Hamilton's Indy Lights team" . Racer . Haymarket Publications . November 29, 2011. Retrieved December 29, 2011 . ^ " "Goncalvez Returns to Belardi for 2012" " . Archived from the original on 2012-01-25. Retrieved 2012-01-20 . ^ driver makes history” [permanent dead link ] (indycar.com; January 20, 2012) ^ "Dempsey joins Belardi Auto Racing for remainder of season" . Firestone Indy Lights . IndyCar . June 29, 2012. Archived from the original on 2012-07-02. Retrieved June 29, 2012 . ^ Knowlton, Veronica. Mike Larrison Joins Belardi Auto Racing Belardi Auto Racing , May 4, 2012, Retrieved 2012-05-04 ^ "Fan Force United signs Ebrahim" . Firestone Indy Lights . IndyCar . January 3, 2012. Archived from the original on 2012-01-09. Retrieved January 3, 2012 . ^ "Fan Force United hires Clauson for two races" . Firestone Indy Lights . IndyCar . June 9, 2012. Retrieved June 9, 2012 . ^ Guerra, Kate. Newton-John enters the Freedom 100 with Fan Force United Archived 2012-05-02 at the Wayback Machine , IndyCar , April 30, 2012, Retrieved 2012-05-01 ^ Dempsey returns to Firestone Indy Lights with Younessi , May 7, 2012, Retrieved 2012-05-07 ^ Younessi Racing enters Indy Lights , Racer , February 28, 2012, Retrieved March 6, 2012 ^ "NBC Sports Network to air 2012 races" . Firestone Indy Lights . IndyCar . February 17, 2012. Archived from the original on 2012-02-19. Retrieved February 17, 2012 .
USAC Mini-Indy SeriesCART American Racing SeriesCART Firestone/Dayton Indy LightsIRL Infiniti/Indy Pro SeriesFirestone Indy Lights Series Indy Lights Series presented by Cooper Tire Firestone Indy NXT Series