1996 Indy Lights season

(Redirected from 1996 in Indy Lights)

The 1996 PPG/Firestone Indy Lights Championship Powered By Buick consisted of 12 races. Canadian David Empringham captured three wins on his way to the championship.[1]

1996 Indy Lights season
PPG/Firestone Indy Lights Championship
Season
Races12
Start dateMarch 3
End dateSeptember 8
Awards
Drivers' championCanada David Empringham
← 1995
1997 →

Team and driver chart edit

The following drivers and teams competed in the series:

Team No. Drivers Round(s)
Brian Stewart Racing 2   Mattias Andersson 1–2
  Nick Firestone 4–9
  Felipe Giaffone 11–12
3   Gualter Salles All
61   Jack Miller All
Dorricott Racing 31   Shigeaki Hattori All
32   Jeff Ward All
FRE Racing 17   José Cordova 1–2
  Peter Faucetta Jr. 3
  Jaki Scheckter 5–7, 12
  Robbie Buhl 9
Forsythe Racing 33   David Empringham All
66   Claude Bourbonnais All
99   Bertrand Godin 9–12
Genoa Racing 24   David DeSilva All
Indy Regency Racing 28   Hideki Noda All
Leading Edge Motorsports 4   Felipe Giaffone 1–8
  José Giaffone 10–12
  Sohrab Amirsardari 9
5 6
23   Mark Hotchkis All
77   Rodolfo Lavín 1–2, 4–12
PacWest Lights 10   Bob Reid 9
  Robby Unser 1–2
12 3–7, 9–12
  Casey Mears 8
Performance Racing 9   Andy Boss 1–2
  David LaCroix 11
RaceCars 88   Diego Gumzán 1
  Paulo Carcasci 2
  Freddy van Beuren 8–12
89   Danny Candía 1
  Roque Aranda 2–4
  Maurício Slaviero 7–9
Summit Motorsports 20   Doug Boyer 1–2, 4–6
Tasman Motorsports 37   Tony Kanaan All
38   José Luís Di Palma All
39   Hélio Castroneves All
Team Green 26   Chris Simmons All
27   Greg Ray All
Team Leisy / McCormack 34   Harry Puterbaugh Jr. 1, 3
  Shan Groff 2, 12
35   Niclas Jönsson 2
Team Medlin 12   Alex Padilla 1–3, 5–12

Schedule edit

Rd. Date Track Location
1 March 3  O  Homestead-Miami Speedway Homestead, Florida
2 April 14  R  Long Beach Street Circuit Long Beach, California
3 April 28  O  Nazareth Speedway Nazareth, Pennsylvania
4 May 25  O  Michigan International Speedway Brooklyn, Michigan
5 June 2  O  Milwaukee Mile West Allis, Wisconsin
6 June 9  R  The Raceway at Belle Isle Park Detroit, Michigan
7 June 23  R  Portland International Raceway Portland, Oregon
8 June 30  R  Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airport Cleveland, Ohio
9 July 14  R  Exhibition Place Toronto, Ontario
10 August 4  R  Circuit Trois-Rivières Trois-Rivières, Quebec
11 September 1  R  Streets of Vancouver Vancouver, British Columbia
12 September 8  R  Laguna Seca Raceway Monterey, California

Race results edit

Round Circuit Pole position Most laps led Race Winner
Driver Team
1   Homestead-Miami Speedway   David Empringham   David Empringham   David Empringham Forsythe Racing
2   Long Beach Street Circuit   Gualter Salles   David Empringham   David Empringham Forsythe Racing
3   Nazareth Speedway   Claude Bourbonnais   David DeSilva   David DeSilva Genoa Racing
4   Michigan International Speedway   David Empringham   David Empringham   David Empringham Forsythe Racing
5   Milwaukee Mile   Mark Hotchkis   Mark Hotchkis   Mark Hotchkis Leading Edge Motorsports
6   The Raceway at Belle Isle Park   David Empringham   Tony Kanaan   Tony Kanaan Tasman Motorsports
7   Portland International Raceway   Tony Kanaan   Gualter Salles   Gualter Salles Brian Stewart Racing
8   Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airport   Mark Hotchkis   Gualter Salles   Gualter Salles Brian Stewart Racing
9   Exhibition Place   Jeff Ward   Gualter Salles   Gualter Salles Brian Stewart Racing
10   Circuit Trois-Rivières   Hélio Castroneves   Hélio Castroneves   Hélio Castroneves Tasman Motorsports
11   Streets of Vancouver   Jeff Ward   Tony Kanaan   Claude Bourbonnais Forsythe Racing
12   Laguna Seca Raceway   Tony Kanaan   Tony Kanaan   Tony Kanaan Tasman Motorsports

Race summaries edit

Homestead race edit

Held March 3 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. David Empringham won the pole.

Top Five Results

  1. David Empringham
  2. Chris Simmons
  3. Mark Hotchkis
  4. David DeSilva
  5. Jeff Ward

Long Beach race edit

Held April 14 at Long Beach, California Street Course. Gualter Salles won the pole.

Top Five Results

  1. David Empringham
  2. Tony Kanaan
  3. Gualter Salles
  4. Hélio Castro-Neves
  5. Alex Padilla

Nazareth race edit

Held April 28 at Nazareth Speedway. Claude Bourbonnais won the pole.

Top Five Results

  1. David DeSilva
  2. David Empringham
  3. Mark Hotchkis
  4. Chris Simmons
  5. Jeff Ward

Michigan race edit

Held May 25 at Michigan International Speedway. David Empringham won the pole.

Top Five Results

  1. David Empringham
  2. Mark Hotchkis
  3. Jeff Ward
  4. Robby Unser
  5. Hélio Castro-Neves

Milwaukee race edit

Held June 2 at The Milwaukee Mile. Mark Hotchkis won the pole.

Top Five Results

  1. Mark Hotchkis
  2. Greg Ray
  3. David Empringham
  4. Gualter Salles
  5. Chris Simmons

Detroit race edit

Held June 9 at Belle Isle Raceway. David Empringham won the pole.

Top Five Results

  1. Tony Kanaan
  2. Alex Padilla
  3. Claude Bourbonnais
  4. José Luis Di Palma
  5. Jaki Scheckter

Portland race edit

Held June 23 at Portland International Raceway. Tony Kanaan won the pole.

Top Five Results

  1. Gualter Salles
  2. Alex Padilla
  3. David Empringham
  4. Claude Bourbonnais
  5. Tony Kanaan

Cleveland race edit

Held June 30 at Burke Lakefront Airport. Mark Hotchkis won the pole.

Top Five Results

  1. Gualter Salles
  2. Claude Bourbonnais
  3. Hélio Castro-Neves
  4. Nick Firestone
  5. Hideki Noda

Toronto race edit

Held July 14 at Exhibition Place. Jeff Ward won the pole.

Top Five Results

  1. Gualter Salles
  2. Claude Bourbonnais
  3. Hideki Noda
  4. Shigeaki Hattori
  5. Alex Padilla

Trois-Rivières race edit

Held August 4 at the Trois-Rivières, Quebec Street Circuit. Hélio Castro-Neves won the pole.

Top Five Results

  1. Hélio Castro-Neves
  2. Tony Kanaan
  3. Alex Padilla
  4. David Empringham
  5. Bertrand Godin

Vancouver race edit

Held September 1 at Pacific Place. Jeff Ward won the pole.

Top Five Results

  1. Claude Bourbonnais
  2. Tony Kanaan
  3. Jeff Hotchkis
  4. Alex Padilla
  5. David Empringham

Laguna Seca race edit

Held September 8 at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Tony Kanaan won the pole.

Top Five Results

  1. Tony Kanaan
  2. Hélio Castro-Neves
  3. Claude Bourbonnais
  4. Alex Padilla
  5. Jeff Ward

Championship standings edit

Drivers' championship edit

Scoring system
Position  1st   2nd   3rd   4th   5th   6th   7th   8th   9th   10th   11th   12th 
Points 20 16 14 12 10 8 6 5 4 3 2 1
  • The driver who qualifies on pole is awarded one additional point.
  • An additional point is awarded to the driver who leads the most laps in a race.
Pos Driver HMS
 
LBH
 
NAZ
 
MIS
 
MIL
 
DET
 
POR
 
CLE
 
TOR
 
TRO
 
VAN
 
LAG
 
Points
1   David Empringham 1* 1* 2 1* 3 21 3 21 6 4 5 6 148
2   Tony Kanaan 10 2 12 17 7 1* 5 19 24 2 2* 1* 113
3   Gualter Salles 6 3 11 6 4 22 1* 1* 1* 15 21 19 108
4   Claude Bourbonnais Wth 7 16 18 8 3 4 2 2 20 1 3 104
5   Mark Hotchkis 3 9 3 2 1* 9 10 18 9 19 3 7 102
6   Alex Padilla 17 5 15 17 2 2 20 5 3 4 4 90
7   Hélio Castroneves DNS 4 17 5 11 17 8 3 23 1* 10 2 84
8   David DeSilva 4 10 1* 7 19 6 12 16 15 7 18 9 61
9   José Luís Di Palma 15 6 6 8 14 4 11 7 8 11 6 13 56
10   Chris Simmons 2 23 4 12 5 7 21 11 14 17 7 12 54
11   Jeff Ward 5 8 5 3 DNS 11 17 13 20 16 20 5 53
12   Greg Ray 7 11 18 15 2 8 6 10 16 6 17 16 48
13   Shigeaki Hattori 9 DNS 10 19 6 13 7 9 4 8 16 14 42
14   Hideki Noda 11 16 7 13 12 16 20 5 3 12 13 15 34
15   Robby Unser 13 15 14 4 10 10 15 10 9 14 20 25
16   Bertrand Godin 7 5 11 10 21
17   Felipe Giaffone 14 24 13 10 9 18 16 6 22 8 20
18   Nick Firestone 11 16 20 9 4 19 18
19   Jaki Scheckter 5 18 11 12
20   Jack Miller 21 18 6 20 18 15 19 14 21 10 9 23 12
21   Roque Aranda 20 9 9 8
22   Freddy van Beuren 12 12 13 8 17 7
23   Doug Boyer 8 22 16 13 19 5
24   Casey Mears 8 5
25   Robbie Buhl 11 2
26   Rodolfo Lavín 16 19 14 15 12 14 15 13 18 12 21 2
27   Shan Groff 12 22 1
28   José Cordova 12 25 1
29   Mauricio Slaviero 13 17 18 0
30   Mattias Andersson 20 13 0
31   Sohrab Amirsardari 14 17 0
32   José Giaffone 14 19 18 0
33   Andy Boss 19 14 0
34   David LaCroix 15 0
35   Niclas Jönsson 17 0
36   Diego Guzmán 18 0
37   Peter Faucetta Jr. 19 0
38   Paulo Carcasci 21 0
39   Danny Candía 22 0
40   Bob Reid 22 0
41   Harry Puterbaugh Jr. 23 DNS 0
Pos Driver HMS
 
LBH
 
NAZ
 
MIS
 
MIL
 
DET
 
POR
 
CLE
 
TOR
 
TRO
 
VAN
 
LAG
 
Points
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

  • Ties in points broken by number of wins, or best finishes.

References edit

  1. ^ "Standings".