MID-OHIO 100 FIRESTONE INDY LIGHTS RACE RUNNING:
Race distance: 40 laps on 2.258-mile road circuit
At 11:45 a.m., the ambient temperature was 66 degrees with a relative humidity of 64 percent and winds from the east-southeast at 10 mph. Skies were partly sunny. The track temperature was 95 degrees, according to Firestone engineers.
11:53 a.m. - Command to start engines. All cars fired and rolling for pace laps.
Lap 1: GREEN. #7 Chaves leads field into Turn 4.
Lap 2: #7 Chaves leads #5 Dempsey by .8505 of a second.
Lap 3: LOCAL YELLOW #26 Munoz spins off course in Turn 2 while battling #77 Hawksworth for third and slides across the grass. He rejoins the race at the end of the field.
Lap 5: #7 Chaves leads #5 Dempsey by 1.4577 seconds.
Lap 7: #7 Chaves leads #5 Dempsey by 2.1819 seconds.
Lap 10: #7 Chaves leads #5 Dempsey by 2.7536 seconds. #26 Munoz is ninth, battling with #8 Karam.
Lap 13: #7 Chaves leads #5 Dempsey by 2.7080 seconds.
Lap 14: #26 Munoz passes #4 Goncalvez for seventh in Turn 4.
Lap 15: #7 Chaves leads #5 Dempsey by 2.9012 seconds.
Lap 17: #7 Chaves leads #5 Dempsey by 3.0420 seconds.
Lap 20: #7 Chaves leads #5 Dempsey by 2.1895 seconds.
Lap 23: #7 Chaves leads #5 Dempsey by 1.7859 seconds.
Lap 24: #26 Munoz passes #2 Garcia for fifth place.
Lap 25: #7 Chaves leads #5 Dempsey by 1.7821 seconds.
Lap 28: #7 Chaves leads #5 Dempsey by 1.8166 seconds. #77 Hawksworth, #12 Veach and #26 Munoz battling for third, 19 seconds behind the leader.
Lap 30: #7 Chaves leads #5 Dempsey by 1.6260 seconds. #77 Hawksworth, #12 Veach and #26 Munoz battling for third, separated by less than a second. Munoz passes Veach for fourth.
Lap 32: #7 Chaves leads #5 Dempsey by 1.3105 seconds. #77 Hawksworth, #26 Munoz and #12 Veach battling nose-to-tail for third.
Lap 33: LOCAL YELLOW. #6 Serenelli spins off course in Turn 12.
Lap 34: FULL COURSE YELLOW. Leaders under caution are: #7 Chaves, #5 Dempsey, #77 Hawksworth, #26 Munoz and #12 Veach.
Lap 36: GREEN. #7 Chaves leads the field into Turn 1.
Lap 37: #7 Chaves leads #5 Dempsey by .2735 of a second.
Lap 38: #7 Chaves leads #5 Dempsey by .2735 of a second.
Lap 39: WHITE: #7 Chaves leads #5 Dempsey by .5741 of a second.
Lap 40: CHECKERED: #7 Gabby Chaves wins the Mid-Ohio 100 by .3508 of a second over #5 Peter Dempsey. #77 Jack Hawksworth was third.
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TORONTO 100 FIRESTONE INDY LIGHTS POST-RACE NOTES:
Gabby Chaves earned his first career Firestone Indy Lights victory.
Gabby Chaves led all 40 laps today, a personal best for laps led in one Firestone Indy Lights race. His previous best was 9 at St. Petersburg
Gabby Chaves earned his seventh sixth podium finish of the season. He placed second at Long Beach, Indianapolis and Iowa and third at Barber, Pocono and Toronto.
Gabby Chaves led from start to finish today, the third driver to achieve that feat this season in Firestone Indy Lights. Jack Hawksworth led every lap at Toronto. Carlos Munoz led from start to finish at Barber, Long Beach and Pocono.
Peter Dempsey finished second, his fourth podium finish this season. He won at Indianapolis and finished second at St. Petersburg and Toronto.
Jack Hawksworth finished third, his fifth podium finish of the season. He won at St. Petersburg and Toronto, and finished second at Barber and third at Iowa.
***
GABBY CHAVES (No. 7 Schmidt Peterson Motorsports c/w Curb-Agajanian): "I crossed the finish line and I didn't have words. I was just screaming. That's all I was doing, just screaming. The feeling of winning, especially when it was so hard, when you come so long and worked so hard to get here, makes it so much more special." (About final restart): "I knew Peter was coming. I burned down my left front tire and I had no grip anywhere. I knew I just had to keep him behind me. It's a pretty tricky place to stay tied behind someone, especially around Turn 1 which is very high speed, and then that leads up to one of the only passing opportunities here on the track, so I knew if I just had a good line through [Turn 1] and a good exit off of [Turn 2], there's no way he could pass me."
PETER DEMPSEY (No. 5 Belardi Auto Racing): "I have to thank my team, Belardi Auto Racing, and everyone involved, especially my engineer Lou (D'Agostino) and my mechanics Mikey (Meyer) and Chad (Potier) as well. Tommy Byrne works at Mid-Ohio and he helped me get up to speed here, so I owe him one too. Congratulations to Gabby (Chaves). If anyone deserved the win, he did. He's worked hard all year. I'm glad I can lose to him. Second place is good."
JACK HAWKSWORTH (No. 77 Schmidt Peterson Motorsports c/w Curb-Agajanian): "It was not all we expected. I think after Friday, coming into the race, we thought we had a good chance of winning. We just didn't have the pace in qualifying. It's a bit of a mystery because Friday we were very fast. We just didn't have the speed. The guys worked really hard this weekend. I'm glad we got the podium still. I thought at the end we had a chance to win when the safety car came out. It's just one of those that we didn't have the chance to win so we just have to collect points."
ZACH VEACH (No.12 K12/Andretti Autosport): "Overall I think it was a good day. We got up into fourth early on with Carlos (Munoz) being pushed back by (Jack) Hawksworth, and then we just spent the rest of the race trying to get by Hawksworth; he really made it impossible to get around him. It was blocking, but it was clean. We had a great car here. I think Carlos and I both could have possibly fought for the win. It's just a bit frustrating we couldn't get up there with the road block in our way. The K12 Andretti Autosport guys did a great job this weekend; they prepped me an awesome car, and we'll just go on to Baltimore and keep working."
CARLOS MUNOZ (No. 26 Dialy-Ser/Andretti Autosport): "In the beginning, I touched with Jack Hawksworth and spun, and after that, I just pushed the whole race, every lap to catch up. I got back up to fourth place... I think I did a good job overtaking, but I feel sorry for the team because of the mistake I made. I had such a great car to win this race for sure. I'm happy I'm still leading the championship; although the gap between first and second is a little tighter, I have more points that when we got here."
JORGE GONCALVEZ (No. 4 Belardi Auto Racing): "I did the best I could on track. It was hard because the setup was not the best for me. I realized that staying on track and not crashing was the best way to finish a race. So I tried really hard to keep my head clear. It is what it is but it's frustrating because all of this weekend, during practice and qualifying I was pretty fast and now it's disappointing that I don't see good results."
GIANCARLO SERENELLI (No. 6 Belardi Auto Racing): "It was pretty hard in the beginning to get the rhythm to stay with the front of the pack. I know that when I spend more time and get more miles on the car that I will be able to get faster and faster. I made two mistakes and I think it's because I have not been in a race car in a long time and because my head was not in the right place in the moment. I found a lot of positives in today's race and I know that I can take that with me and make it better at Baltimore."
