Jack Harvey extends Indy Lights championship lead in Milwaukee
The Schmidt Peterson Motorsports driver is now 15 points ahead of second placed.
Photo by: IndyCar Series
British racing driver Jack Harvey extended his championship lead in the Indy Lights Championship after a fourth place finish in Milwaukee. The Schmidt Peterson Motorsports driver, who has scored two wins and six second places so far this season is now on 261 points in the driver standings, 15 points ahead of second placed Spencer Pigot and 31 points ahead of Ed Jones.
Returning to competition after a month-long break, the Indy Lights fraternity hit the world famous ‘Milwaukee Mile’ on Saturday for practice on the 1.015-mile oval, the oldest operating motor speedway in the world. Harvey was on the pace straight out of the box, topping the timesheets in practice ahead of main championship rivals Jones and Pigot, with a fastest lap of 147.723 mph (24.7355 seconds).
Heading into the weekend, the Racing Steps Foundation-backed driver led the championship standings with 242 points. Pigot was second on 231 points and Jones 12 points further adrift.
Hard fought on qualifying session
Saturday afternoon saw a hard fought qualifying session, with the top four drivers smashing the previous qualifying lap record. Harvey set a fastest lap of 24.4258 seconds, hitting a top speed of 149.778 mph to line up on the outside of the second row in fourth. Pigot took pole, with RC Enerson and Kyle Kaiser in second and third respectively.
100-laps of high-speed oval action
On Sunday afternoon the grid was set for 100-laps of high-speed oval action. Enerson took the lead over Pigot and Kaiser, with Harvey maintaining fourth. On lap 16, Harvey fell to sixth behind Juan Piedrahita and Felix Serrales. On lap 47 Kaiser spun, promoting to Harvey to fifth, and the Brit gained another position five laps later when Pigot slipped down the order. At the chequered flag, Serrales took the win, followed by Enerson and Piedrahite, with Harvey crossing the line in the #42 in fourth. With his rivals Pigot and Jones finishing in seventh and eighth respectively, Harvey increased his championship lead to 15 points.
Focus on Iowa
The championship battle will resume next weekend, with round 12 of the Championship due to take place at Newton, Iowa.
"It was a decent weekend. We started out well in practice but then could only manage P4 in qualifying. The whole team worked hard to get ready for the race and to finish fourth is not a bad result, but it’s not where we wanted to be. We’re still leading the Championship, but now our focus turns to on Iowa next weekend and to getting back to the top of results sheets to extend our Championship lead even further,” commented Jack Harvey.
Standings for 2015 Indy Lights Championship
After seven race weekends:
(1) Jack Harvey 261 points
(2) Spencer Pigot 246 points
(3) Ed Jones 230 points
(4) RC Enerson 192 points
(5) Juan Piedrahita 157 points
Jack Harvey
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