2008 Indy Lights season

The 2008 Indy Racing League Firestone Indy Lights Series season, formerly the Indy Pro Series, began on March 29, 2008 and consisted of 16 races. Due to the discontinuation of the United States Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the series lost its Liberty Challenge double header typically held that weekend. The Liberty double header were replaced by the addition of a second race at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course and a return to the Kansas Speedway, where the series has not raced since 2004. All races were shown time-delayed on ESPN2. Live stream video was available on the IndyCar Lights Series website. It was announced on March 22, 2008 that Firestone signed on to be the title sponsor of the Indy Pro Series, and thus the series was retitled the Firestone Indy Lights, in reference to the old Indy Lights development series which ran under CART from 1986 to 2001.

Race schedule

t. Pete 100 Race 1

*Saturday April 5, 2008
*Streets of St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg, Florida
*Race weather: 84° F, fair skies
*Pole position winner: #27 Raphael Matos 1:06.4669 sec, 97.492 mph (156.898 km/h)
*Race Summary: Raphael Matos dominated the race and captured his third win at St. Pete in 3 races. The race was slowed 3 times early in the race by caution flags caused by two spins by Bobby Wilson and Mitchell Cunningham going off course, but the final 26 laps were run without a full-course caution. Matos drew the number four following the race, meaning that the top four positions would be inverted and Jeff Simmons would start race 2 from the pole.

Firestone Freedom 100

*Friday May 23, 2008
*Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Speedway, Indiana
*Race weather:
*Pole position winner: #15 Dillon Battistini 188.397 mph (303.196 km/h)
*Race Summary: Dillon Battistini led at the start and was consistently hounded by the cars of James Davison and Wade Cunningham throughout the race. The most spectacular moment of the race came when Davison and J. R. Hildebrand's cars came together on the backstretch, forcing nearby cars to go four-wide and Jeff Simmons to drop two tires into the grass to avoid the slowing pair of cars that sustained slight damage. During the final ten laps of the race, Richard Antinucci was able to catch a draft behind Battistini, but reported that when he pulled out of the draft to pass, he was unable to maintain enough speed to complete the maneuver and Battistini was able to cruise to his second win of the season.

Corning Duels Race 1

*Saturday July 5, 2008
*Watkins Glen International, Watkins Glen, New York
*Race weather: 72°, Sunny
*Pole position winner: #55 Franck Perera 1:37.8651 sec, 123.967 mph
*Race summary: The race started under caution as James Davison stalled on track and Matt Lee spun during the pace laps. Once the green flag flew, Raphael Matos and Richard Antinucci passed polesitter Franck Perera in turn 4. Later that lap, Perera spun in the "toe" of the "boot" while J. R. Hildebrand and Bobby Wilson spun in the very next corner. The race was slowed one more time by a solo spin by points leader Dillon Battistini who had struggled all weekend. Matos dominated the remaining laps and won the race by over 2 seconds in front of his closest pursuer Antinucci. The race was ended 1 lap prior to the scheduled length because of the series imposed 1 hour time limit.

Mid-Ohio 100 Race 1

*Saturday July 19, 2008
*Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Lexington, Ohio
*Race weather:
*Pole position winner: #27 Raphael Matos 1:13.1434 sec, 111.135 mph (178.854 km/h)
*Race summary: Raphael Matos drove away from the field as he assumed the points lead and Dillon Battistini's bad luck continued. Matos led every lap of the race that was not slowed by any caution flags. The most significant incident occurred during the first lap when Wade Cunningham and Daniel Herrington made contact but were able to continue after dropping back, although Herrington's car required serious repair. Cunningham would recover to finish 12th while Herrington finished 21st after repairs. Another incident involved Battistini spinning off after light contact with Logan Gomez. He would finish 18th. Matos continued to stretch his lead over Perera late into the race and was essentially unchallenged for his third win of the year while Perera scored his first series podium finish.

Carneros 100

*Saturday August 23, 2008
*Infineon Raceway, Sonoma, California
*Race weather: Sunny
*Pole position winner: #55 Franck Perera 1:23.2851 sec, 99.547 mph (160.205 km/h)
*Race summary: Polesitter Franck Perera led every lap to capture his first Indy Lights victory and Guthrie Racing's first win of the season. Richard Antinucci had passed outside front row starter Raphael Matos, his closest pursuer in the championship, at the start of the race for the second position, but was penalized and put back behind Matos. Matos took the points lead by a single point on points earned from this race.

Driver standings

References

ee also

*2008 IndyCar Series season
*2008 Champ Car Atlantic Season

External links

* [http://www.indycar.com/indylights/ Indy Lights Series website]