1996 Indy Lights season

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]

This was the last season where all teams used the Lola T93/20-Buick spec car, which was replaced in the 1997 season by the Lola T97/20-Buick spec car.

The scoring system was 20-16-14-12-10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 points awarded to the first 12 (twelve) finishers, with 1 (one) extra point given to the driver who took pole-position, and another extra point given to the driver who led most laps in the race.

1996 Indy Lights season
PPG/Firestone Indy Lights Championship
Season
Races	12
Start date	March 3
End date	September 8
Awards
Drivers' champion	David Empringham
← 1995 1997 →

Team and driver chart

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

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

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

Homestead race

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Drivers' championship

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.