IndyCar developmental series to take place under the lights
|
The third edition of the Miller Lite 100 will be raced under the lights at Iowa Speedway for the first time this Saturday.
Although the Firestone Indy Lights Series is an important stepping stone for many drivers with aspirations of racing in the IndyCar Series, most race fans attending this weekend’s events know very little about the cars or their drivers.
The series debuted in 1986 as the American Racing Series. CART (the former Champ Car Series) used the ARS as a developmental series to train drivers for their top circuit.
In 1991, they secured sponsorship from Firestone and was renamed the Indy Lights (FILS). They used March and Lola chassis and Buick V6 engines. In 2001 due to financial difficulties CART canceled the series and looked to the Toyota Atlantic Series (TAS) for new drivers. That series was similar to the FIL series only they used Toyota power plants. Sam Hornish, Jr and Greg Ray came from that series.
In 1996, the Indy Racing League was up and running and they had been getting drivers from the TAS, but they needed a support class for the IndyCar Series. In 2002, the Menards Infinity Pro Series was formed to act as a feeder series to IndyCar and as a support class for IRL weekends.
The series would have less than 10 cars per race and in 2006 Menards and Nissan left the series. It then became the Indy Pro series. Increased purses and an even number of road courses and ovals brought more teams and more fans. In 2008, when Champ Car folded and merged with Indy Car, the series was renamed the Firestone Indy Lights bringing back a little tradition to the series.
The cars look a little different than their big brothers and they sound much different. The chassis is a Dallara like the IndyCar Series uses but with slightly different bodies and wings. The engines are normally aspirated 3.5L V8 Infiniti Q45 that produces 420 horsepower although these engines are listed as unbadged. The races are shorter but add a nice event to IndyCar qualifying days.
Current IndyCar drivers that have come from this series include Helio Castroneves, Dan Weldon, Tony Kannan, Paul Tracy, Scott Dixon, Marco Andretti, A.J. Foyt IV, Ed Carpenter, Alex Lloyd and last years champ Raphael Matos. Lloyd won the first Miller Lite 100 at Iowa Speedway.
The racing these cars produce is very exciting and close. The race here last year was very close race with Dillon Battistini and Arie Luyendyk Jr.
In September 2007, Lloyd and Logan Gomez raced into the Guinness Book of World Records when Gomez beat Lloyd to the stripe by .0005 seconds.
Saturday will be a festive day kicking off with rookie practice at 9:30 a.m followed by all team practice for the IndyCars at 10:15. The FILS cars will begin practice at 11:30. Qualifying begins at 3 p.m. for the FILS and the ICS follows at 4:15. You can get autographs of your favorite drivers at 6:15 and the Miller Lite 100 begins at 8 p.m.
Remember, you can let traffic thin out while watching Hairball after the race or if you are really hardcore head on down to Knoxville to catch the main events on Mid-season Championship night.
One last note, be sure to take part in the Transporter parade Thursday evening so the IRL can see how much our city loves the Iowa Corn Indy 250. This is the series second highest rated televised event, second only to the Indy 500 so turn out and support this event.
