Mazda Road to Indy Toronto Saturday recap

With broken Thumb Colton Herta crashed in the Lights race Saturday

The Mazda Road to Indy development ladder sanctioned by INDYCAR has doubleheader weekends scheduled for all three levels at Toronto. The first race in each series took place Saturday.

Patricio O'Ward (Andretti Autosport) led all 35 laps of the Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires race, avoiding incidents and spinning cars behind him as the latter stages encountered wet track conditions from rain. O'Ward started second and passed teammate and pole sitter Colton Herta on the opening lap.

Herta, who sustained a non-displaced fracture at the base of his left thumb when he crashed into a tire barrier at the conclusion of morning qualifying, made hard contact with the wall in the race and finished seventh. He will be evaluated by the INDYCAR medical staff Sunday to determine his status for the second weekend race.

Rinus VeeKay (Juncos Racing) won a wild Pro Mazda Championship presented by Cooper Tires race which included a spectacular incident that sent the car of Harrison Scott airborne into the Turn 3 runoff after it made contact with the car of Sting Ray Robb. Scott emerged unhurt. More than half of the 14-car field was eliminated in incidents throughout the 25-lap race.

Kyle Kirkwood (Cape Motorsports) passed pole sitter Dakota Dickerson (ArmsUp Motorsports) heading into the first turn of the opening lap and drove on to his fifth consecutive win in the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship powered by Mazda. Kirkwood won the 20-lap race by 0.3613 of a second.