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2017 Indy Lights season
Indy Lights
Season
Races	16
Start date	March 12
End date	September 3
Awards
Drivers' champion	Kyle Kaiser
Teams' champion	Belardi Auto Racing
Rookie of the Year	Colton Herta
← 20162018 →

The 2017 Indy Lights season was the 32nd season of the Indy Lights open wheel motor racing series and the 16th sanctioned by IndyCar, acting as the primary support series for the IndyCar Series. A 16-race schedule was announced on September 14, 2016. The schedule included a stop at Gateway Motorsports Park for the first time since 2003. This replaced the race at Phoenix International Raceway after it returned to the schedule for only a single season. The Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca round to end the season was omitted, as it was for the other Road to Indy series.

American Kyle Kaiser driving for Juncos Racing led a steady campaign where he finished every lap of the season in a season where no particular team or driver was dominant and in doing so essentially clinched the championship with one round remaining (he only had to start the final round). Kaiser won three races with an additional three podium finishes. Santiago Urrutia struggled during the first half of the season but logged six podium finishes in the last seven races, including two wins, to vault his way to second in the championship. Colton Herta won six poles, but was only able to convert that to two wins and he finished third in the championship. Brazilian rookie Matheus Leist had a brilliant stretch of races in the middle of the season, capturing three wins, but was otherwise unremarkable and wound up fourth. Zachary Claman DeMelo won a single race and finished fifth in points while 2016 Pro Mazda Championship winner Aaron Telitz bookended the season with his only two wins and finished sixth. Nico Jamin won three races but also suffered four DNFs and fell to seventh in points. Juan Piedrahita captured his first Indy Lights pole at Gateway Motorsports Park, his 57th Indy Lights start.

Team and driver chart

• All drivers compete in Cooper Tire–shod Dallara chassis with Mazda AER engines.

Team	No.	Drivers	Rounds
Andretti Autosport	27	Nico Jamin	All
	28	Dalton Kellett	All
	48	Ryan Norman	All
Andretti Steinbrenner Racing	98	Colton Herta	All
Belardi Auto Racing	5	Santiago Urrutia	All
	9	Aaron Telitz	All
	51	Shelby Blackstock	All
	84	Chad Boat	15
Carlin	11	Garth Rickards	All
	13	Zachary Claman DeMelo	All
	22	Neil Alberico	All
	26	Matheus Leist	All
Juncos Racing	18	Kyle Kaiser	All
	31	Nicolás Dapero	All
Team Pelfrey	2	Juan Piedrahíta	All
	3	Patricio O'Ward	1–4

Schedule

Rd.	Date	Race name	Track	Location
1	March 11	St. Petersburg 100	Streets of St. Petersburg	St. Petersburg, Florida
2	March 12
3	April 22	Legacy Indy Lights 100	Barber Motorsports Park	Birmingham, Alabama
4	April 23
5	May 12	Grand Prix of Indianapolis	Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course	Speedway, Indiana
6	May 13
7	May 26	Freedom 100	Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval	Speedway, Indiana
8	June 24	Grand Prix of Road America	Road America	Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin
9	June 25
10	July 9	Mazda Iowa 100	Iowa Speedway	Newton, Iowa
11	July 15	Grand Prix of Toronto	Exhibition Place	Toronto, Ontario, Canada
12	July 16
13	July 29	Grand Prix of Mid-Ohio	Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course	Lexington, Ohio
14	July 30
15	August 26	Illinois 100	Gateway Motorsports Park	Madison, Illinois
16	September 3	Grand Prix of Watkins Glen	Watkins Glen International	Watkins Glen, New York

Race results

Round	Race	Pole position	Fastest lap	Most laps led	Race Winner
					Driver	Team
1	St. Petersburg 1	Aaron Telitz	Colton Herta	Aaron Telitz	Aaron Telitz	Belardi Auto Racing
2	St. Petersburg 2	Colton Herta	Colton Herta	Colton Herta	Colton Herta	Andretti Steinbrenner Racing
3	Birmingham 1	Kyle Kaiser	Nico Jamin	Nico Jamin	Nico Jamin	Andretti Autosport
4	Birmingham 2	Colton Herta	Santiago Urrutia	Colton Herta	Colton Herta	Andretti Steinbrenner Racing
5	Indianapolis GP 1	Nico Jamin	Matheus Leist	Nico Jamin	Nico Jamin	Andretti Autosport
6	Indianapolis GP 2	Kyle Kaiser	Zachary Claman DeMelo	Kyle Kaiser	Kyle Kaiser	Juncos Racing
7	Indianapolis	Matheus Leist	Santiago Urrutia	Matheus Leist	Matheus Leist	Carlin
8	Road America 1	Matheus Leist	Kyle Kaiser	Matheus Leist	Matheus Leist	Carlin
9	Road America 2	Colton Herta	Zachary Claman DeMelo	Zachary Claman DeMelo	Zachary Claman DeMelo	Carlin
10	Iowa	Colton Herta	Dalton Kellett	Matheus Leist	Matheus Leist	Carlin
11	Toronto 1	Kyle Kaiser	Colton Herta	Kyle Kaiser	Kyle Kaiser	Juncos Racing
12	Toronto 2	Colton Herta	Kyle Kaiser	Colton Herta	Kyle Kaiser	Juncos Racing
13	Mid-Ohio 1	Santiago Urrutia	Shelby Blackstock	Santiago Urrutia	Santiago Urrutia	Belardi Auto Racing
14	Mid-Ohio 2	Colton Herta	Santiago Urrutia	Nico Jamin	Nico Jamin	Andretti Autosport
15	Gateway	Juan Piedrahíta	Zachary Claman DeMelo	Juan Piedrahíta	Santiago Urrutia	Belardi Auto Racing
16	Watkins Glen	Colton Herta	Aaron Telitz	Aaron Telitz	Aaron Telitz	Belardi Auto Racing

Qualifying canceled due to weather and grid was set on points

Championship standings

Drivers' championship

Scoring system

• The driver who qualified on pole was awarded one additional point.
• An additional point was awarded to the driver who led the most laps in a race.
• The driver who obtained the fastest lap in a race was awarded one additional point.

Pos Driver STP ALA IND INDY RDA IOW TOR MOH GAT WGL Pts 1 Kyle Kaiser 6 4 2 2 3 1* 9 3 2 5 1* 1 12 12 4 7 330 2 Santiago Urrutia 13 2 15 13 7 2 5 2 11 2 3 11 1* 2 1 2 310 3 Colton Herta  RY  2 1* 10 1* 12 10 13 12 3 4 4 10* 2 6 3 3 300 4 Matheus Leist  R  15 11 4 7 5 3 1* 1* 4 1* 13 5 11 10 10 4 279 5 Zachary Claman DeMelo   8 7 5 14 2 11 6 10 1* 6 2 3 5 4 6 6 274 6 Aaron Telitz  R  1* 5 13 5 6 13 2 11 5 9 5 2 8 5 15 1* 271 7 Nico Jamin  R  7 14 1* 3 1* 4 10 6 14 7 14 12 3 1* 11 5 269 8 Neil Alberico 3 15 3 4 4 6 4 7 8 11 8 14 6 9 12 11 225 9 Juan Piedrahita 14 10 11 11 DNS 5 8 5 10 10 6 4 10 11 2* 9 208 10 Shelby Blackstock 4 6 7 8 9 14 11 8 6 13 11 13 4 3 9 12 207 11 Ryan Norman  R  10 9 12 9 8 7 14 4 7 8 10 6 9 7 8 10 200 12 Dalton Kellett 12 12 6 10 13 9 3 9 9 3 12 9 7 13 7 13 198 13 Nicolás Dapero  R  9 8 9 6 11 8 12 14 12 12 7 7 14 8 5 8 187 14 Garth Rickards  R  11 13 14 12 10 12 7 13 13 14 9 8 13 14 13 DNS 146 15 Patricio O'Ward  R  5 3 8 15 58 16 Chad Boat  R  14 7 Pos Driver STP ALA IND INDY RDA IOW TOR MOH GAT WGL Pts

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 (1 point) * Led most race laps (1 point) Qualifying cancelled no bonus point awarded Rookie

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

Teams' championship

Pos	Team	Points
1	Belardi Auto Racing	393
2	Andretti Autosport	389
3	Carlin	365
4	Juncos Racing	282
5	Team Pelfrey	162

References

1. "2017 Mazda Road to Indy schedules revealed". September 14, 2016.
2. "Andretti Autosport | JAMIN TO JOIN ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT 2017 INDY LIGHTS LINE UP". November 29, 2016.
3. "Kellett Returns to Andretti Autosport for 2017". Archived from the original on June 26, 2020. Retrieved November 7, 2016.
4. "Andretti Autosport | RYAN NORMAN NAMED THIRD DRIVER TO ANDRETTI INDY LIGHTS ROSTER". December 5, 2016.
5. "Colton Herta quits Europe to race Indy Lights in 2017".
6. ^ "Mazda Road to Indy Teams, Drivers to Gain Head Start on 2017 Season". Archived from the original on June 26, 2020. Retrieved November 7, 2016.
7. "The Official Site of the Road to Indy, Drivers, Schedule & Shop".
8. "Belardi signs Pro Mazda champ Telitz for 2017". Archived from the original on November 10, 2016. Retrieved November 10, 2016.
9. "The Official Site of the Road to Indy, Drivers, Schedule & Shop".
10. "Rickards moves up to Indy Lights with Carlin - Carlin". Archived from the original on June 24, 2020. Retrieved January 10, 2017.
11. "Claman DeMelo ready for Indy Lights assault". February 6, 2017. Archived from the original on June 25, 2020. Retrieved February 6, 2017.
12. "Alberico returns with Carlin for 2017 season". February 14, 2017. Archived from the original on June 25, 2020. Retrieved February 14, 2017.
13. "Leist joins Carlin for Indy Lights". February 3, 2017. Archived from the original on June 25, 2020. Retrieved February 6, 2017.
14. "American Kyle Kaiser Looks to Lead Juncos Racing in 2017 Indy Lights Championship". December 10, 2016. Archived from the original on December 20, 2016. Retrieved December 10, 2016.
15. "Dapero graduates with Juncos to Indy Lights". www.motorsport.com.
16. "Piedrahita to Rejoin Team Pelfrey IL in 2017". Archived from the original on June 27, 2020. Retrieved February 7, 2017.
17. "The Official Site of the Road to Indy, Drivers, Schedule & Shop".

External links

• Indy Lights Series website

• Indy Lights seasons
• 2017 in American motorsport
• 2017 in formula racing