Pigot wins Indy Lights pole

Spencer Pigot

After 40 minutes of almost constant shuffling of positions at the top of the Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires pack, Spencer Pigot and Juncos Racing claimed the pole position for the first of two races that will comprise this weekend's Legacy Indy Lights 100 at Barber Motorsports Park.

The honor came as some kind of redemption for Pigot, who won last year's Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires, along with a MAZDASPEED scholarship to graduate into Indy Lights, and seemed to have the pole within his grasp one week ago on the streets of Long Beach, only to be edged in the dying moments by Jack Harvey.

This time his team made sure that Pigot ventured out onto the challenging and undulating 2.3-mile, 17-turn Barber Motorsports Park ahead of his main rival, and Pigot responded with a lap at 1:12.3865. Pigot's effort showed the effectiveness of the new Mazda MZR-R-powered Dallara IL-15 by circulating a full 1.5 seconds inside the previous Indy Lights lap record.

Harvey, driving for seven-time Indy Lights championship-winning team Schmidt Peterson Motorsports with Curb-Agajanian, also improved his time in the closing minutes but ended up 0.2505 seconds shy in second place. Championship leader Ed Jones (Carlin) will share Row Two of the grid with Pigot's teammate, Kyle Kaiser, followed by Schmidt Peterson's RC Enerson, who led the way for a healthy portion of another thrilling 40-minute session, and the second Carlin Dallara-Mazda of ex-Formula 1 racer Max Chilton.

The first of two Indy Lights Legacy 100 races this weekend will start tomorrow afternoon at 2:50 p.m., and the one-hour Race Two "feature" event on Sunday, April 26, at 12:10 p.m., immediately before the Verizon IndyCar Series headline event. All times are local. Live timing and commentary for all sessions will be available on the new Mazda Road to Indy App with live streaming at racecontrol.indycar.com.

Spencer Pigot #12 Mazda/Doug Mockett & Company/Rising Star Racing/The Stutz/BAD/OMP-Juncos Racing): "My team really wanted me to get out in front of Jack. We didn't want anyone in front of us. We wanted clean air because that's where we get the optimum downforce. The guys worked really hard today in the changing conditions. There wasn't much rubber on the track for our first practice this morning, then in the afternoon it got quite hot, which made the track much greasier and changed the balance of the car. It cooled down again for qualifying, so it was a real mix of conditions and setup changes. It was a lot of work throughout qualifying to make that last run as good as it could be. The plan tomorrow will be to stay in front of Jack. This is not an easy place to pass, but you can get around on the outside in Turn One so I have to try to stay ahead of him."

Jack Harvey #42 Racing Steps Foundation/Curb Records- Schmidt Peterson Motorsports w/ Curb-Agajanian: "There are some things I would do differently if I could do it again; maybe the strategy of how we played the session or the feedback I gave the team would have been a little different. But on the whole, we're pretty happy in the end. I'm not here to be second, but starting second is better than starting third. I know Spencer will be tough, but we're ready for the challenge. We'll give it everything we've got, like we always do. The whole race will be at the start, and in Turns Five and Eight. There are a few opportunities to take the lead, we just have to make sure we do. But wherever we are, we have to do consistent laps and either try to pull away or get around the guy in front."

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