The good news for Ed Jones, Dean Stoneman and Santiago Urrutia in this year’s Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires is that they’ve become the three most likely protagonists in the battle for the championship, with one of them a strong candidate to win the title and secure the Mazda advancement scholarship into the Verizon IndyCar Series that comes with it.
The bad news is that aggression has more than occasionally shown through in their driving habits in the opening nine races this season, with each of the three driving more aggressively than normal in at least one of the two Indy Lights races this past weekend at Road America.
Stoneman and Urrutia were both issued five second time penalties added to the end of their race times on Saturday for hitting another competitor on track. Then on Sunday, Jones was the aggressor, as he drove Stoneman off the road on the run up to Turn 6.
For their actions, all three drivers have been placed on probation through the end of the season, which is essentially a big warning from the series to say clean your act up or you’ll suffer more serious sanctions.
Jones has 213 points with Stoneman second on 194 and Urrutia third on 189.
Here’s the release from the series out today:
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Three drivers today were placed on probation by Race Director Tony Cotman following Rounds 8 and 9 of Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires competition at Road America this past weekend.
Dean Stoneman of Andretti Autosport, Santiago Urrutia of Schmidt Peterson Motorsports w/ Curb-Agajanian and Ed Jones of Carlin have been placed on probation through the end of the 2016 season for misconduct leading up to and including the Road America event. If Stoneman, Urrutia and/or Jones are involved in any additional incidents including unsportsmanlike conduct and dangerous or over aggressive driving as determined by the Race Director, they will be penalized with the loss of a minimum of 10 championship points.
“The notices issued do not preclude a driver from racing hard, but serve as a reminder on how to race over the final eight rounds of the championship,” said Cotman.