Firestone Indy Lights Debuts New Qualifying Format At St. Petersburg

A new street course qualifying format will greet Firestone Indy Lights teams when preparations for the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg begin on April 3.

Andrew Prendeville Credit: Shawn Payne/Indy Lights

Teams will be split into two groups with the fastest overall time determining the race's polesitter. The fastest car from the non pole-winning group will occupy the other front-row starting spot with the remainder of the polesitter's group occupying the odd positions, while the outside polesitter's group will make up the even positions.

"With 28 cars entered for our races, we felt like this was the fairest way for everyone to have a chance to compete for pole," said Tony Cotman, vice president of competition for the Indy Racing League, sanctioning body of Firestone Indy Lights and the series' race director. "This format mimics the system used by IndyCar Series where we've seen that splitting the field increases the opportunities for a clean lap in qualifying."

The qualifying format is one of many new looks for the series in 2008, which features one of the deepest lineups in series history. Eighteen drivers will be making their first start on the streets of St. Petersburg alongside 10 series veterans, including two past champions and six previous race-winners.

"I'm really excited to get the 2009 season started," said J.R. Hildebrand, who moves from RLR/Andersen Racing to the championship-winning Andretti Green Racing/AFS Racing team . "We have done a great deal of testing this off-season and things have been going very well, especially with our non-oval program. The AFS/AGR crew has been working really hard this offseason so I hope to be able to show them their hard work paid off."

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