INDIANAPOLIS – Jack Harvey scored an emotional win in Friday’s Freedom 100, the marquee event of the Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires season.
It’s a race the Englishman, who drove the No. 42 Racing Steps Foundation Dallara IL-15 Mazda, said he wanted to win after missing it last year.
“I’m not usually speechless and this is one of the rare moments I am,” Harvey said. “I was really happy Ethan was on pole. But I wanted to win the race. Last year I wanted to win but made a mistake. This year I didn’t make any mistakes.”
Although Ethan Ringel led the majority of the race – 30 of the 40 laps – it was Harvey who made what proved to be the winning move on Lap 34.
Coming to lap Spencer Pigot, Harvey used the slingshot effect on Ringel as they closed and passed the Juncos Racing driver. Harvey went past Ringel on the outside into Turn 1, for the sixth and final lead change of the race.
The race ended under yellow after Ed Jones, the other title contender, had a spin exiting Turn 4 on Lap 37.
Although this prevented the fans and the race from ending under green, it was an inadvertent benefit to Ringel, who felt a tire close to going down near the end of the race.
As it was, Harvey won his second race of the season and second of the month, having also scored a win in the first of the two road course races at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis weekend.
Ringel was second, and with Scott Anderson and RC Enerson third and fourth, the Schmidt Peterson Motorsports teammate secured a top-four sweep. Both Ringel and Anderson scored career-best finishes and their first career podiums.
Kyle Kaiser completed the top five. Pigot and Jones ended ninth and 10th.
Unofficially, heading to the Toronto doubleheader next month, Harvey leads Jones by 13 points, 192-179. Pigot is third with 168 points.
