The 2021 Indy Lights season was the 35th season of the Indy Lights open wheel motor racing series and the 19th sanctioned by IndyCar, acting as the primary support series for the IndyCar Series. After going into a hiatus in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the season started on April 17 at Barber Motorsports Park and was held over 20 races spanning ten meetings.[1]

2021 Indy Lights season
Indy Lights
Season
Races20
Start dateApril 17
End dateOctober 3
Awards
Drivers' championUnited States Kyle Kirkwood
Teams' championUnited States HMD Motorsports
Rookie of the YearUnited States Kyle Kirkwood
← 2019
2022 →

Series news

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  • On October 7, 2020, Indy Lights announced a series of changes for the 2021 season. The champion's scholarship increased to $1,250,000. The top-three finishers in the championship each earned an IndyCar Series test and all cars were now equipped with a titanium halo to increase driver safety.[2]

Team and driver chart

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The following drivers and teams competed in the series.

Team No. Drivers Round(s)
Andretti Autosport 27   Robert Megennis[3] All
28   Kyle Kirkwood[4] All
68   Danial Frost[5] All
Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport 17   Devlin DeFrancesco[6] All
Carlin[7][8] 5   Alex Peroni[7][9] 1–14
7   Christian Bogle[10] All
Global Racing Group
with HMD Motorsports[11][12][13]
24   Benjamin Pedersen[14] All
26   Linus Lundqvist[15] All
HMD Motorsports[16] 59   Nikita Lastochkin[17] 1–12
  Manuel Sulaimán[18] 15–20
79   David Malukas[19] All
Juncos Racing[20]
Juncos Hollinger Racing1[21]
2   Sting Ray Robb[22] All
51   Toby Sowery[23] 1–14
  Rasmus Lindh[24] 15–20
Pserra Racing/AS Promotions 11   Antonio Serravalle[25] 1–14, 19–20
1Juncos Racing were rebranded as Juncos Hollinger Racing in August 2021

Schedule

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The provisional 2021 race calendar was announced on October 21, 2020, with the final round to be announced at a later date.[26] This last round was later confirmed to be at Barber Motorsports park, after the IndyCar series moved its season opener there.[27] The calendar was the first since 2002 to not feature the Freedom 100 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The Toronto round originally scheduled was replaced by a standalone second weekend at Mid-Ohio in October.

Rd. Date Race name Track Location
1 April 17–18 Indy Lights Grand Prix of Barber Motorsports Park
Presented by Cooper Tires
 R  Barber Motorsports Park Birmingham, Alabama
2
3 April 24–25 Indy Lights Grand Prix of St. Petersburg
Presented by Foundation Building Materials
 R  Streets of St. Petersburg St. Petersburg, Florida
4 Indy Lights Grand Prix of St. Petersburg
Presented by Andersen Interior Contracting
5 May 14–15 Indy Lights Grand Prix of Indianapolis
Presented by Cooper Tires
 R  Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course Speedway, Indiana
6
7 June 12–13 Indy Lights Grand Prix of Detroit
Presented by Cooper Tires
 R  The Raceway at Belle Isle Park Detroit, Michigan
8
9 June 19–20 Cooper Tires Grand Prix of Road America
Powered by AER
 R  Road America Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin
10
11 July 3–4 Cooper Tires Indy Lights Grand Prix of Mid-Ohio  R  Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course Lexington, Ohio
12
13 August 20–21 Cooper Tires Indy Lights Oval Challenge of St. Louis  O  Gateway Motorsports Park Madison, Illinois
14
15 September 11–12 Cooper Tires Indy Lights Grand Prix of Portland  R  Portland International Raceway Portland, Oregon
16
17 September 18–19 Indy Lights Grand Prix of Monterey
Presented by Cooper Tires
 R  WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca Monterey, California
18
19 October 1–3 VP Racing Fuels Champhionship Weekend
Presented By Cooper Tires
 R  Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course Lexington, Ohio
20
References: [28][29]

Race results

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Round Race Pole position Fastest lap Most laps led Race Winner
Driver Team
1 Birmingham 1   Linus Lundqvist   Toby Sowery   Linus Lundqvist   Linus Lundqvist HMD Motorsports
2 Birmingham 2   David Malukas   David Malukas   David Malukas   David Malukas HMD Motorsports
3 St. Petersburg 1   Kyle Kirkwood   Kyle Kirkwood   Kyle Kirkwood   Kyle Kirkwood Andretti Autosport
4 St. Petersburg 2   David Malukas   Kyle Kirkwood   David Malukas   David Malukas HMD Motorsports
5 Indianapolis GP 1   Linus Lundqvist   Linus Lundqvist   Linus Lundqvist   Linus Lundqvist HMD Motorsports
6 Indianapolis GP 2   David Malukas   Kyle Kirkwood   David Malukas   David Malukas HMD Motorsports
7 Detroit 1   Kyle Kirkwood   Linus Lundqvist   Kyle Kirkwood   Kyle Kirkwood Andretti Autosport
8 Detroit 2   Linus Lundqvist   David Malukas   Kyle Kirkwood   Kyle Kirkwood Andretti Autosport
9 Road America 1   Danial Frost   Kyle Kirkwood   Kyle Kirkwood   Kyle Kirkwood Andretti Autosport
10 Road America 2   Danial Frost   Robert Megennis   David Malukas   David Malukas HMD Motorsports
11 Mid-Ohio 1   Kyle Kirkwood   Kyle Kirkwood   Kyle Kirkwood   Kyle Kirkwood Andretti Autosport
12 Mid-Ohio 2   Danial Frost   Danial Frost   Kyle Kirkwood   Kyle Kirkwood Andretti Autosport
13 Gateway 1   David Malukas   David Malukas   David Malukas   David Malukas HMD Motorsports
14 Gateway 2   Kyle Kirkwood   Kyle Kirkwood   Kyle Kirkwood   David Malukas HMD Motorsports
15 Portland 1   David Malukas   Kyle Kirkwood   David Malukas   David Malukas HMD Motorsports
16 Portland 2   David Malukas   Benjamin Pedersen   Kyle Kirkwood   Kyle Kirkwood Andretti Autosport
17 Laguna Seca 1   Kyle Kirkwood   Kyle Kirkwood   Kyle Kirkwood   Kyle Kirkwood Andretti Autosport
18 Laguna Seca 2   Kyle Kirkwood   Kyle Kirkwood   Kyle Kirkwood   Kyle Kirkwood Andretti Autosport
19 Mid-Ohio 3   Kyle Kirkwood   Danial Frost   Kyle Kirkwood   Kyle Kirkwood Andretti Autosport
20 Mid-Ohio 4   David Malukas   David Malukas   Linus Lundqvist   Linus Lundqvist HMD Motorsports

Championship standings

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Drivers' Championship

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Scoring system
Position  1st   2nd   3rd   4th   5th   6th   7th   8th   9th   10th   11th   12th   13th   14th   15th   16th   17th   18th   19th   20th 
Points (R) 30 25 22 19 17 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Points (O) 45 38 33 29 26 23 21 20 18 17 15 14 12 11 9 8 6 5 4 2
  • 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.
Pos Driver ALA STP IMS DET ROA MOH1 GAT POR LAG MOH2 Points
1   Kyle Kirkwood  RY  9 5 1* 2 4 4 1* 1* 1* 12 1* 1* 2 2* 2 1* 1* 1* 1* 5 537
2   David Malukas 13 1* 3 1* 2 1* 5 3 7 1* 3 3 1* 1 1* 2 4 2 2 2 524
3   Linus Lundqvist  R  1* 2 9 3 1* 5 2 2 4 5 4 4 9 4 3 3 2 3 6 1* 449
4   Benjamin Pedersen  R  2 7 10 6 10 9 11 6 2 7 7 8 3 3 4 4 3 5 9 3 356
5   Danial Frost  R  7 12 2 4 6 8 6 12 11 3 2 2 6 10 8 6 8 4 4 6 338
6   Devlin DeFrancesco  R  3 3 12 5 7 6 7 5 10 6 5 5 4 5 11 7 9 8 8 4 326
7   Robert Megennis 6 13 4 7 8 7 8 8 3 2 8 7 7 7 5 5 10 6 3 9 319
8   Sting Ray Robb  R  8 8 6 13 9 10 10 10 8 9 11 10 12 11 9 11 6 9 5 7 249
9   Toby Sowery 4 4 13 9 3 2 3 4 5 13 6 6 11 8 236
10   Alex Peroni  R  5 6 5 8 5 3 4 13 13 4 9 9 5 6 228
11   Christian Bogle  R  10 10 11 12 12 12 13 7 9 8 10 13 8 9 10 8 11 11 12 10 227
12   Antonio Serravalle  R  12 11 7 10 11 11 12 11 6 10 13 12 10 12 11 12 175
13   Nikita Lastochkin  R  11 9 8 11 13 13 9 9 12 11 12 11 123
14   Rasmus Lindh  R  7 9 5 7 10 8 81
15   Manuel Sulaimán  R  6 10 7 10 7 11 75
Pos Driver ALA STP IMS DET ROA MOH1 GAT POR LAG MOH2 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
(1 point)
1 Qualifying cancelled
no bonus point awarded
 R  Rookie
 RY  Rookie of the Year
  • Ties in points broken by number of wins, or best finishes.

Teams' championship

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Scoring system
Position  1st   2nd   3rd   4th   5th   6th   7th   8th   9th   10th+ 
Points 22 18 15 12 10 8 6 4 2 1
  • Single car teams received 3 bonus points as an equivalency to multi-car teams
  • Only the best two results counted for teams fielding more than two entries
Pos Team ALA STP IMS DET ROA MOH1 GAT POR LAG MOH2 Points
1 HMD Motorsports[n 1] 1 1 3 1 1 1 2 2 2 1 3 3 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 1 665
2 2 7 3 2 5 5 3 4 5 4 4 3 3 3 3 3 3 5 2
2 Andretti Autosport[n 2] 3 3 1 2 4 4 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 3 622
6 5 2 4 6 6 6 5 3 3 2 2 4 4 4 4 6 4 3 4
3 Juncos Racing
Juncos Hollinger Racing
4 4 5 6 3 2 3 4 5 7 5 5 8 6 5 6 4 5 4 5 324
7 7 9 9 7 7 7 7 7 9 8 7 9 8 6 7 5 6 6 6
4 Carlin 5 6 4 5 5 3 4 6 8 4 6 6 5 5 7 5 7 7 8 7 249
8 8 8 8 9 9 9 9 9 6 7 9 6 7
5 Pserra Racing/AS Promotions 9 9 6 7 8 8 8 8 6 8 9 8 7 9 7 8 118
Pos Team ALA STP IMS DET ROA MOH1 GAT POR LAG MOH2 Points

Notes

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  1. ^ Entry list has Global Racing Group as a separate team of two cars, while official points list HMD and GRG as the same team.
  2. ^ Entry list has Andretti / Andretti Steinbrenner as two teams with one and three cars, while official teams standings list it as a single team.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Indy Lights 2021 event schedule" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on September 11, 2021. Retrieved November 23, 2020.
  2. ^ "INDY LIGHTS RETURN CONFIRMED FOR 2021". indylights.com. October 7, 2020. Retrieved November 24, 2020.
  3. ^ "Megennis Returns to Andretti Autosport for 2021". www.indylights.com. Archived from the original on April 18, 2021. Retrieved December 22, 2020.
  4. ^ Wood, Elliot (November 18, 2020). "Andretti confirms Kyle Kirkwood as part of 2021 Indy Lights line-up". Formula Scout. Retrieved November 23, 2020.
  5. ^ Woollard, Craig (November 23, 2020). "Danial Frost confirms Andretti Indy Lights move for 2021". Formula Scout. Retrieved November 23, 2020.
  6. ^ "DeFrancesco Steps Up to Indy Lights with Return of Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport". www.indylights.com. Archived from the original on October 26, 2021. Retrieved December 1, 2020.
  7. ^ a b "Carlin return to Indy Lights with Peroni". www.indylights.com. Retrieved December 20, 2020.
  8. ^ "Malukas and Lundqvist lead the way in Indy Lights' Spring Training". Formula Scout. April 6, 2021. Retrieved April 7, 2021.
  9. ^ Wood, Ida (September 4, 2021). "Indy Lights grid shrinks as Peroni follows Sowery out of series". Formula Scout. Retrieved September 5, 2021.
  10. ^ "BOGLE STEPS UP TO INDY LIGHTS WITH CARLIN". www.indylights.com. Archived from the original on February 9, 2021. Retrieved February 9, 2021.
  11. ^ "Global Racing Group Enters Indy Lights in Partnership with HMD Motorsports". www.indylights.com. Archived from the original on November 17, 2020. Retrieved November 23, 2020.
  12. ^ "Indy Lights Grand Prix of Alabama Presented by Cooper Tires Entry List" (PDF). Indy Lights. Retrieved April 23, 2021.
  13. ^ "Indy Lights Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Presented by Foundation Building Materials/Andersen Interior Contracting Entry List" (PDF). Indy Lights. Retrieved April 23, 2021.
  14. ^ "Global Racing Group with HMD Motorsports Inks Pedersen for 2021". www.indylights.com. Archived from the original on December 15, 2020. Retrieved December 15, 2020.
  15. ^ "Lundqvist to Make Indy Lights Debut with Global Racing Group with HMD Motorsports". www.indylights.com. Archived from the original on June 15, 2021. Retrieved January 19, 2021.
  16. ^ Wood, Elliot (November 17, 2020). "Global Racing Group joins Indy Lights grid in alliance with HMD". Formula Scout. Retrieved November 23, 2020.
  17. ^ "NIKITA LASTOCHKIN JOINS HMD MOTORSPORTS". February 4, 2021. Archived from the original on February 4, 2021. Retrieved February 4, 2021.
  18. ^ Wood, Ida (September 3, 2021). "Sulaiman steps up to Indy Lights with HMD Motorsports". Formula Scout. Retrieved September 5, 2021.
  19. ^ "Malukas Set for Championship Run with HMD Motorsports". www.indylights.com. Archived from the original on May 7, 2021. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
  20. ^ Pruett, Marshall (November 14, 2020). "PRUETT: A new dawn for Indy Lights". Racer.com. Retrieved December 2, 2020.
  21. ^ "Juncos Announces Co-Ownership with Brad Hollinger to Form Juncos Hollinger Racing". www.indylights.com. Retrieved August 4, 2021.
  22. ^ "INDY PRO 2000 CHAMPION ROBB ADVANCES TO INDY LIGHTS WITH JUNCOS RACING". indylights.com. January 14, 2021. Archived from the original on January 15, 2021. Retrieved January 15, 2021.
  23. ^ "Juncos Racing signs Sowery for 2021 Season". March 8, 2020. Retrieved March 8, 2020.
  24. ^ "Lindh rejoins Juncos for rest of Indy Lights season". RACER. September 8, 2021. Retrieved September 8, 2021.
  25. ^ "ANTONIO SERRAVALLE AND PSERRA RACING JOIN INDY LIGHTS PROGRAM IN 2021". Indylights.com. March 31, 2021. Archived from the original on June 14, 2021. Retrieved March 31, 2021.
  26. ^ "Road to Indy Presented by Cooper Tires Unveils 2021 Schedule". www.indylights.com. Retrieved November 23, 2020.
  27. ^ "Road to Indy Announces 2021 Schedule Adjustments". www.indylights.com. Retrieved January 6, 2021.
  28. ^ "2021 SEASON". indylights.com. Archived from the original on April 19, 2021. Retrieved April 19, 2021.
  29. ^ "Road to Indy Adjusts 2021 Schedule, Adds New Season Finale Venue". www.indylights.com. Archived from the original on May 14, 2021. Retrieved May 14, 2021.
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