1997 Indy Lights season

The 1997 PPG/Firestone Indy Lights Championship Powered By Buick consisted of 13 races. Tony Kanaan edged out good friend and teammate Hélio Castro-Neves to the title by only four points.^[1]

1997 Indy Lights season
PPG/Firestone Indy Lights Championship
Season
Races	14
Start date	March 2
End date	September 27
Awards
Drivers' champion	Tony Kanaan
← 1996 1998 →

This was the first season where all teams used 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.

Team and driver chart

The following drivers and teams competed in the series:

Team	No.	Drivers	Round(s)
Autosport Racing	5	Eric Jensen	9
	57	Didier André	1–12
	75	Jean-Philippe Belloc	12
Bordin Racing	56	Andrew Bordin	1–2, 6–12
Brian Stewart Racing	2	Airton Daré	All
	3	Cristiano da Matta	All
	34	Jaques Lazier	2–7
		Frédéric Gosparini	9–13
	63	Brian Cunningham	1
Conquest Racing	21	Christophe Tinseau	All
Dorricott Racing	31	Luiz Garcia Jr.	All
	32	Bob Dorricott Jr.	All
Eclipse Racing	20	John Jones	1–4, 7–8
		Claude Bourbonnais	9–12
FRE Racing	4	Sérgio Paese	1–2, 4–12
Forsythe Racing	33	David Empringham	All
	99	Lee Bentham	All
Genoa Racing	97	Oswaldo Negri Jr.	2, 4, 8–12
Indy Regency Racing	28	Hideki Noda	1–12
	77	Rodolfo Lavín	All
Johansson Motorsports	36	Fredrik Larsson	1–9
	70	Jeff Ward	11–13
Leading Edge Motorsports	5	Chris Bingham	1–3, 8
Lucas Place Motorsports	5	Brian Cunningham	11–13
	16	Shigeaki Hattori	2–13
	24	David DeSilva	All
PacWest Lights	18	Robby Unser	All
Project Indy	15	Philipp Sager	1
		Frédéric Gosparini	2
Tasman Motorsports	7	Tony Kanaan	All
	8	Hélio Castroneves	All
Team Green	25	Naoki Hattori	All
	26	Chris Simmons	All
	27	Mark Hotchkis	All
Team Mears	10	Casey Mears	All
	11	Clint Mears	All
Team Medlin	12	Geoff Boss	1–12

Schedule

Rd.	Date	Track	Location
1	March 2	O  Homestead-Miami Speedway	Homestead, Florida
2	April 13	R  Long Beach Street Circuit	Long Beach, California
3	April 27	O  Nazareth Speedway	Nazareth, Pennsylvania
4	May 18	R  Grand Prize of America Road Course	Savannah, Georgia
5	May 24	O  Gateway International Raceway	Madison, Illinois
6	June 1	O  Milwaukee Mile	West Allis, Wisconsin
7	June 8	R  The Raceway at Belle Isle Park	Detroit, Michigan
8	June 22	R  Portland International Raceway	Portland, Oregon
9	July 20	R  Exhibition Place	Toronto, Ontario
10	August 3	R  Circuit Trois-Rivières	Trois-Rivières, Quebec
11	August 31	R  Streets of Vancouver	Vancouver, British Columbia
12	September 7	R  Laguna Seca Raceway	Monterey, California
13	September 27	O  California Speedway	Fontana, California

Race results

Round	Circuit	Pole position	Fastest lap	Most laps led	Race Winner
					Driver	Team
1	Homestead-Miami Speedway	Hélio Castroneves	Mark Hotchkis	Mark Hotchkis	David Empringham	Forsythe Racing
2	Long Beach Street Circuit	Hélio Castroneves	Cristiano da Matta	Hélio Castroneves	Hélio Castroneves	Tasman Motorsports
3	Nazareth Speedway	Chris Simmons	David DeSilva	Chris Simmons	Cristiano da Matta	Brian Stewart Racing
4	Grand Prize of America Road Course	Hélio Castroneves	Not announced	Hélio Castroneves	Hélio Castroneves	Tasman Motorsports
5	Gateway International Raceway	Chris Simmons	Cristiano da Matta	Lee Bentham	Lee Bentham	Forsythe Racing
6	Milwaukee Mile	Clint Mears	Clint Mears	Clint Mears	Clint Mears	Team Mears
7	The Raceway at Belle Isle Park	Tony Kanaan	Hélio Castroneves	Tony Kanaan	Tony Kanaan	Tasman Motorsports
8	Portland International Raceway	Hélio Castroneves	Oswaldo Negri Jr.	Hélio Castroneves	Hideki Noda	Indy Regency Racing
9	Exhibition Place	Tony Kanaan	Christophe Tinseau	Hélio Castroneves	Hélio Castroneves	Tasman Motorsports
10	Circuit Trois-Rivières	Mark Hotchkis	Mark Hotchkis	Tony Kanaan	Tony Kanaan	Tasman Motorsports
11	Streets of Vancouver	Cristiano da Matta	Hideki Noda	Cristiano da Matta	Cristiano da Matta	Brian Stewart Racing
12	Laguna Seca Raceway	Tony Kanaan	Cristiano da Matta	Cristiano da Matta	Cristiano da Matta	Brian Stewart Racing
13	California Speedway	Clint Mears	Cristiano da Matta	Hélio Castroneves	Clint Mears	Team Mears

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 SAV GAT MIL DET POR TOR TRO VAN LAG FON Points 1 Tony Kanaan 6 5 5 23 10 3 1* 3 2 1* 2 2 9 156 2 Hélio Castroneves 14 1* 4 1* 3 12 2 2* 1* 20 19 3 5* 152 3 Cristiano da Matta 21 2 1 21 2 4 26 5 18 4 1* 1* 4 141 4 David Empringham 1 10 9 14 4 2 4 7 3 5 5 26 13 107 5 Lee Bentham 5 14 22 3 1* 9 22 8 27 8 8 5 3 88 6 Chris Simmons 3 4 2* 16 5 17 8 13 21 15 4 28 2 88 7 Mark Hotchkis 4* 3 23 17 22 7 6 16 17 2 11 4 11 74 8 Clint Mears 12 18 7 18 11 1* 18 DNS 13 12 14 DNS 1 53 9 Hideki Noda 18 19 16 6 16 14 14 1 15 6 3 12 51 10 Airton Daré 11 6 8 8 6 11 13 20 9 9 7 11 8 51 11 Christophe Tinseau 25 26 14 12 12 21 11 4 5 3 18 6 12 49 12 Fredrik Larsson 2 22 3 10 24 5 25 22 28 43 13 Luiz Garcia Jr. 16 15 24 4 17 19 9 6 25 23 6 10 10 38 14 Didier André 22 8 25 9 20 18 21 25 4 7 10 8 35 15 Robby Unser 8 7 10 22 7 6 12 14 7 19 21 22 16 35 16 Naoki Hattori 13 DNS 15 5 14 13 7 24 6 24 15 20 6 32 17 Geoff Boss 10 24 17 20 21 20 3 10 14 11 9 9 30 18 Sérgio Paese DNS 20 2 18 24 5 12 23 25 27 13 27 19 David DeSilva 17 12 6 DNQ 8 25 10 26 24 26 17 17 17 20 Oswaldo Negri Jr. 27 7 9 8 21 20 27 15 21 Brian Cunningham 7 25 7 14 12 22 Jaques Lazier 11 12 24 9 8 23 12 23 Casey Mears 9 17 13 13 13 10 25 11 20 17 16 19 15 9 24 Jeff Ward 22 15 7 6 25 Shigeaki Hattori 9 20 15 23 16 24 23 26 14 12 14 18 5 26 Frédéric Gosparini DNS 12 10 24 23 19 4 27 Bob Dorricott Jr. 24 21 18 11 19 23 16 15 11 16 13 21 20 4 28 Andrew Bordin 23 23 15 17 17 10 13 23 16 3 29 Chris Bingham 15 13 11 21 2 30 Rodolfo Lavín 20 16 21 25 15 22 19 19 22 22 26 25 17 0 31 Eric Jensen 16 0 32 Claude Bourbonnais 19 18 28 18 0 33 John Jones 19 25 19 19 20 18 0 34 Jean-Philippe Belloc 24 0 35 Philipp Sager DNS 0 Pos Driver HMS LBH NAZ SAV GAT MIL DET POR TOR TRO VAN LAG FON 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.