Americans Lead the Way as Indy Lights Drivers Prepare for Freedom 100

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 The annual Freedom 100 represents the most prestigious race of the Mazda Road to Indy Presented by Cooper Tires season. Taking place on the historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval directly after the traditional final practice for the Indianapolis 500 on Carb Day this Friday, May 26, it is the race every driver particularly wants to win.

 
No fewer than 24 of the 33 starters in this year’s 101st Indianapolis 500 have graduated to the pinnacle of American open-wheel racing via Indy Lights, including 10 series champions dating back to Tony Kanaan in 1997. Four of them – Ed Carpenter, Josef Newgarden, Jack Harvey and Gabby Chaves – will have an opportunity this coming Memorial Day weekend to etch their name in the record books as the first to win both the Freedom 100 and the Indianapolis 500.
 
This year’s 15th annual Freedom 100 is the seventh of 16 races that will comprise the Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires title-chase. Four different drivers have claimed victory from the opening six races of the season, and while seven different nationalities will be represented on the starting grid, four of the current top five championship contenders are young Americans, headed by series veteran Kyle Kaiser, from Santa Clara, Calif. Ultimately at stake is an opportunity for the season champion to claim a Mazda Scholarship valued at $1 million to ensure entry into three Verizon IndyCar Series races in 2018, including the 102nd Indianapolis 500.
 
The high-quality field of 14 drivers today began preparations for Friday’s Freedom 100 with a pair of 90-minute test sessions on the hallowed 2.5-mile superspeedway oval. Second-generation Indy Lights racer Colton Herta, 17, from Valencia, Calif., led the speed charts with a lap of 44.9842 seconds – an average speed of 200.070 mph – this morning at the wheel of his No. 98 Andretti-Steinbrenner Racing Dallara-Mazda IL-15.
 
All 14 drivers recorded times within seven-tenths of a second (or 2.7 mph) of Herta’s best, suggesting the possibility of another photo-finish to match last year’s race when Dean Stoneman claimed the closest margin of victory ever recorded at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway – by a scant 0.0024 second over eventual series champion Ed Jones (who, incidentally, posted the second fastest lap, 228.118 mph, during today’s IndyCar practice session) – or perhaps the remarkable 0.0443 second which blanketed the top four finishers in 2013.
 
As a measure of the series’ unpredictability, points leader Kaiser ranked only 13th on the charts today for Juncos Racing, fractionally ahead of Frenchman Nico Jamin, who already has won twice this year for Andretti Autosport and currently lies second in the standings, just 13 points shy of Kaiser.
 
Aaron Telitz, from Birchwood, Wis., the winner of last year’s Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires, posted the second fastest lap today for Belardi Auto Racing at 199.610 mph.
 
Rookie Matheus Leist, from Novo Hamburgo, Brazil, was third fastest overall and quickest this afternoon at 199.568 mph for the Carlin team, edging out teammate Neil Alberico, from Los Gatos, Calif., and Team Pelfrey’s Juan Piedrahita, from Bogota, Colombia.
 
The Freedom 100 protagonists will return to the track on Thursday for a pair of 30-minute practice sessions at 9:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. EDT, followed by single-car qualifying at 1:30 p.m. The green flag for Friday’s race  – which will air live on NBCSN – will fly at 12:30 p.m. All times are EDT.
 
Live timing and live streaming of practice and qualifying will be available on the Road to Indy App, RoadtoIndy.TV, indylights.com and indycar.com.
Adam Sinclair
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