Milwaukee Indy Lights: Felix Serralles scores maiden win
Felix Serralles earned his first Indy Lights victory after making a late pass on RC Enerson at Milwaukee on Sunday
The Puerto Rican had started the race from sixth on the grid, but capitalised on early problems for some of the drivers around him to climb to second during the second half of the race.
With around 25 laps to go he had moved to within striking range of then-leader Enerson, and he made his move when the pair caught the lapped car of Shelby Blackstock on lap 90.
Blackstock held a high line for a couple of laps with Enerson just behind him and Serralles running low right alongside, but when the Andretti driver dropped low to allow the leaders past, it was Serralles who popped out ahead.
From there, he made the most of the clear track ahead to pull away and win by over 5.5 seconds.
"We've had a lot of issues this year that were out of our control, so to finally win a race - on an oval - is really special," Serralles said.
"The car was sliding all over the place, but I wanted that win so bad.
"I'm just really happy. It's been three winless years, so I had a few tears as soon as I saw the chequered flag."
Enerson held on for second, with Juan Piedrahita completing the podium.
The other contenders were ruled out by small isolated dramas rather than any major incidents.
Kyle Kaiser was running in third for the first half of the race until he caught a seam and spun, and it was only some quick hands that kept him from hitting the wall.
Elsewhere, Jack Harvey relinquished the points lead to polesitter Spencer Pigot when he slowed while running fourth and fell back to sixth, only to reclaim it again when Pigot had a similar problem later and plunged from second to seventh.
Meanwhile, Max Chilton's oval debut ended with the Carlin driver in sixth after starting from the rear of the field.
RESULTS - 100 LAPS:
Pos | Driver | Team | Gap |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Felix Serralles | Belardi Auto Racing | 45m17.6370s |
2 | R.C. Enerson | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | 5.5661s |
3 | Juan Piedrahita | Belardi Auto Racing | 15.0690s |
4 | Jack Harvey | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | 15.3578s |
5 | Scott Anderson | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | 15.8784s |
6 | Max Chilton | Carlin | 16.2155s |
7 | Spencer Pigot | Juncos Racing | 21.0774s |
8 | Ed Jones | Carlin | 22.9752s |
9 | Kyle Kaiser | Juncos Racing | 23.4901s |
10 | Ethan Ringel | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | 23.8371s |
11 | Shelby Blackstock | Andretti Autosport | 1 Lap |
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS:
Pos | Driver | Points |
---|---|---|
1 | Jack Harvey | 261 |
2 | Spencer Pigot | 247 |
3 | Ed Jones | 232 |
4 | R.C. Enerson | 192 |
5 | Felix Serralles | 165 |
6 | Juan Piedrahita | 157 |
7 | Scott Anderson | 156 |
8 | Kyle Kaiser | 153 |
9 | Ethan Ringel | 144 |
10 | Max Chilton | 141 |
11 | Shelby Blackstock | 139 |
12 | Sean Rayhall | 96 |
13 | Matthew Brabham | 35 |
14 | Scott Hargrove | 34 |
15 | Nelson Piquet Jr. | 28 |
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