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
Races12
Start dateMarch 3
End dateSeptember 8
Awards
Drivers' championCanada David Empringham

Team and driver chart

The following drivers and teams competed in the series:

Team No. Drivers Round(s)
Brian Stewart Racing 2 Sweden Mattias Andersson 1–2
United States Nick Firestone 4–9
Brazil Felipe Giaffone 11–12
3 Brazil Gualter Salles All
61 United States Jack Miller All
Dorricott Racing 31 Japan Shigeaki Hattori All
32 United States Jeff Ward All
FRE Racing 17 Brazil José Cordova 1–2
United States Peter Faucetta Jr. 3
South Africa Jaki Scheckter 5–7, 12
United States Robbie Buhl 9
Forsythe Racing 33 Canada David Empringham All
66 Canada Claude Bourbonnais All
99 Canada Bertrand Godin 9–12
Genoa Racing 24 United States David DeSilva All
Indy Regency Racing 28 Japan Hideki Noda All
Leading Edge Motorsports 4 Brazil Felipe Giaffone 1–8
Brazil José Giaffone 10–12
Canada Sohrab Amirsardari 9
5 6
23 United States Mark Hotchkis All
77 Mexico Rodolfo Lavín 1–2, 4–12
PacWest Lights 10 United States Bob Reid 9
United States Robby Unser 1–2
12 3–7, 9–12
United States Casey Mears 8
Performance Racing 9 United States Andy Boss 1–2
United States David LaCroix 11
RaceCars 88 Colombia Diego Gumzán 1
Brazil Paulo Carcasci 2
Mexico Freddy van Beuren 8–12
89 Paraguay Danny Candía 1
Paraguay Roque Aranda 2–4
Brazil Maurício Slaviero 7–9
Summit Motorsports 20 United States Doug Boyer 1–2, 4–6
Tasman Motorsports 37 Brazil Tony Kanaan All
38 Argentina José Luís Di Palma All
39 Brazil Hélio Castroneves All
Team Green 26 United States Chris Simmons All
27 United States Greg Ray All
Team Leisy / McCormack 34 United States Harry Puterbaugh Jr. 1, 3
United States Shan Groff 2, 12
35 Sweden Niclas Jönsson 2
Team Medlin 12 United States 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 United States Homestead-Miami Speedway Canada David Empringham Canada David Empringham Canada David Empringham Forsythe Racing
2 United States Long Beach Street Circuit Brazil Gualter Salles Canada David Empringham Canada David Empringham Forsythe Racing
3 United States Nazareth Speedway Canada Claude Bourbonnais United States David DeSilva United States David DeSilva Genoa Racing
4 United States Michigan International Speedway Canada David Empringham Canada David Empringham Canada David Empringham Forsythe Racing
5 United States Milwaukee Mile United States Mark Hotchkis United States Mark Hotchkis United States Mark Hotchkis Leading Edge Motorsports
6 United States The Raceway at Belle Isle Park Canada David Empringham Brazil Tony Kanaan Brazil Tony Kanaan Tasman Motorsports
7 United States Portland International Raceway Brazil Tony Kanaan Brazil Gualter Salles Brazil Gualter Salles Brian Stewart Racing
8 United States Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airport United States Mark Hotchkis Brazil Gualter Salles Brazil Gualter Salles Brian Stewart Racing
9 Canada Exhibition Place United States Jeff Ward Brazil Gualter Salles Brazil Gualter Salles Brian Stewart Racing
10 Canada Circuit Trois-Rivières Brazil Hélio Castroneves Brazil Hélio Castroneves Brazil Hélio Castroneves Tasman Motorsports
11 Canada Streets of Vancouver United States Jeff Ward Brazil Tony Kanaan Canada Claude Bourbonnais Forsythe Racing
12 United States Laguna Seca Raceway Brazil Tony Kanaan Brazil Tony Kanaan Brazil 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
United States 		LBH
United States 		NAZ
United States 		MIS
United States 		MIL
United States 		DET
United States 		POR
United States 		CLE
United States 		TOR
Canada 		TRO
Canada 		VAN
Canada 		LAG
United States 		Points
1 Canada David Empringham 1* 1* 2 1* 3 21 3 21 6 4 5 6 148
2 Brazil Tony Kanaan 10 2 12 17 7 1* 5 19 24 2 2* 1* 113
3 Brazil Gualter Salles 6 3 11 6 4 22 1* 1* 1* 15 21 19 108
4 Canada Claude Bourbonnais Wth 7 16 18 8 3 4 2 2 20 1 3 104
5 United States Mark Hotchkis 3 9 3 2 1* 9 10 18 9 19 3 7 102
6 United States Alex Padilla 17 5 15 17 2 2 20 5 3 4 4 90
7 Brazil Hélio Castroneves DNS 4 17 5 11 17 8 3 23 1* 10 2 84
8 United States David DeSilva 4 10 1* 7 19 6 12 16 15 7 18 9 61
9 Argentina José Luís Di Palma 15 6 6 8 14 4 11 7 8 11 6 13 56
10 United States Chris Simmons 2 23 4 12 5 7 21 11 14 17 7 12 54
11 United States Jeff Ward 5 8 5 3 DNS 11 17 13 20 16 20 5 53
12 United States Greg Ray 7 11 18 15 2 8 6 10 16 6 17 16 48
13 Japan Shigeaki Hattori 9 DNS 10 19 6 13 7 9 4 8 16 14 42
14 Japan Hideki Noda 11 16 7 13 12 16 20 5 3 12 13 15 34
15 United States Robby Unser 13 15 14 4 10 10 15 10 9 14 20 25
16 Canada Bertrand Godin 7 5 11 10 21
17 Brazil Felipe Giaffone 14 24 13 10 9 18 16 6 22 8 20
18 United States Nick Firestone 11 16 20 9 4 19 18
19 South Africa Jaki Scheckter 5 18 11 12
20 United States Jack Miller 21 18 6 20 18 15 19 14 21 10 9 23 12
21 Paraguay Roque Aranda 20 9 9 8
22 Mexico Freddy van Beuren 12 12 13 8 17 7
23 United States Doug Boyer 8 22 16 13 19 5
24 United States Casey Mears 8 5
25 United States Robbie Buhl 11 2
26 Mexico Rodolfo Lavín 16 19 14 15 12 14 15 13 18 12 21 2
27 United States Shan Groff 12 22 1
28 Brazil José Cordova 12 25 1
29 Brazil Mauricio Slaviero 13 17 18 0
30 Sweden Mattias Andersson 20 13 0
31 Canada Sohrab Amirsardari 14 17 0
32 Brazil José Giaffone 14 19 18 0
33 United States Andy Boss 19 14 0
34 United States David LaCroix 15 0
35 Sweden Niclas Jönsson 17 0
36 Colombia Diego Guzmán 18 0
37 United States Peter Faucetta Jr. 19 0
38 Brazil Paulo Carcasci 21 0
39 Paraguay Danny Candía 22 0
40 United States Bob Reid 22 0
41 United States Harry Puterbaugh Jr. 23 DNS 0
Pos Driver HMS
United States 		LBH
United States 		NAZ
United States 		MIS
United States 		MIL
United States 		DET
United States 		POR
United States 		CLE
United States 		TOR
Canada 		TRO
Canada 		VAN
Canada 		LAG
United States 		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.

References

  1. ^ "Standings".
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