Race Weekend Central

Santiago Urrutia Dominates from Pole for Mid-Ohio Indy Lights Sweep

Santiago Urrutia capped off a near-perfect weekend at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on Sunday with his second Indy Lights victory in as many days.

Piloting the No. 55 machine for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports with Curb-Agajanian, Urrutia withstood an early challenge from Felix Serralles and drove off from Dean Stoneman to claim a dominant victory from the pole in the 38-lap event.

Following Urrutia on the podium were Stoneman and Andre Negrao. Zach Veach and Shelby Blackstock completed the top five, with Kyle Kaiser, Zachary Claman de Melo, Neil Alberico, Dalton Kellett and Serralles completing the top 10.

The win proved critical for Urrutia in the points as championship rival Ed Jones and the entirety of Carlin Racing struggled.

Entering Sunday’s race with a six-point lead over Urrutia in the series standings, Jones would finish 11th out of 12 cars after crashing out on lap 21 following prior contact with teammate Serralles.

After challenging Urrutia early on, Serralles was put back by a spin just as the race’s first yellow flew for a crashed Garett Grist on lap 10.

Serralles made his way to pit road for new tires and began to march through the field only to see his podium hopes undone once by a broken wing from contact with Jones on lap 10, and again by a crash with Kellett with five laps remaining.

The lone driver to complete the race’s 38 laps for Carlin, Alberico, struggled to an eighth-place result.

With his victory, Urrutia completed the last of a slew of weekend sweeps for the Mazda Road to Indy, joining Nico Jamin (Pro Mazda) and Anthony Martin (USF2000). The 2015 Pro Mazda champion takes a 16-point lead in the series standings over Jones as a result of the win and Jones’ misfortune.

The Indy Lights field will return to action on Sept. 3, when the paddock travels to Watkins Glen International for the Grand Prix of Watkins Glen.

Results

  1. Santiago Urrutia
  2. Dean Stoneman
  3. Andre Negrao
  4. Zach Veach
  5. Shelby Blackstock
  6. Kyle Kaiser
  7. Zachary Claman de Melo
  8. Neil Alberico
  9. Dalton Kellett
  10. Felix Serralles
  11. Ed Jones
  12. Garett Grist

About the author

A graduate of Ball State, Aaron rejoins Frontstretch for his second season in 2016 following a successful year that included covering seven races and starting the popular "Two-Headed Monster" column in 2015. Now in his third year of covering motorsports, Aaron serves as an Assistant Editor for Frontstretch while also contributing to other popular sites including Speed51 and The Apex. He encourages you to come say hi when you see him at the track.

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