Carlin Racing could not have imagined a more perfect start to their American adventure. Two poles, two wins, and a fastest lap were the ideal way for Trevor Carlin’s powerhouse European junior formula team to introduce themselves to the Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires field. The podium was a carbon copy of yesterday’s Race 1 podium, with Ed Jones comfortably taking the win in the 60-minute feature race, with Jack Harvey and Spencer Pigot standing next to him on the podium.

The boys in Carlin blue again started on the front row, and Jones got the jump while Max Chilton was again caught out by the rolling start. Chilton was shuffled back to fourth on the front straightaway, while Jones led Harvey and Pigot into Turn 4. 8Star Motorsports’ Scott Hargrove was also shuffled backwards in the opening lap, dropping back to sixth, which allowed Juncos Racing’s Kyle Kaiser to get into the top five. RC Enerson began dropping back in the first few laps of the race before grinding to a halt in Turn 2. Enerson would retire with an apparent engine problem, and the brief full course yellow would bunch up the field.

Jones, now a master of rolling starts and restarts, made a clean getaway yet again, maintaining a slight gap over Harvey. For the first few laps after the restart, Harvey held onto Jones’ rear wing, turning several laps faster than Jones. Jones, though, was in control, and before long he was pulling a continual gap over the 2014 Indy Lights vice-champion, eventually crossing the finish line 9.07 seconds ahead of his early season rival. Behind the leaders, Chilton hounded Pigot throughout the race, with the battle intensifying the last few laps. Chilton, looking to atone for yesterday’s incident with Felix Serralles, made several attempts down in Turn 1, once even getting by Pigot only to have the young American use the crossover maneuver to reclaim the position in Turn 2. Chilton harried Pigot, but the final spot on the podium belonged to the 2014 Pro Mazda champion.

Further back in the field, Matthew Brabham provided most of the excitement. Brabham fell back at the start, but made a great pass on Serralles before hounding Hargrove for the latter half of the race. Brabham, much like Chilton, made a few moves into Turn 1, but was never able to get the timing right to make a pass stick.

“The main point that won the race was consistency,” explained Jones. “I was pushing hard from the beginning, but obviously Jack was very close. I just kept him as close as I could and then I started to pull away. I just got in the zone and was pushing lap after lap and brought it home. For me in the past street races haven’t treated me well, but St. Pete has treated me well and I’m looking forward to going to Long Beach.”

“The only thing I really wanted to do was continue with SPM, they’re like my family away from the UK,” runner-up Harvey commented. “After how close we came to winning the championship last year, I’m really confident that we’ll back to winning races and fighting for the championship. You’ve got to be satisfied with two seconds in a race weekend, which is a whole lot better than we did here last year.”

Now Ed Jones and Carlin Racing take a few weeks off before resuming their title challenge on the famed streets of Long Beach, which will be just a single race format April 17-19.

Indy Lights Race 2 Results

1. Ed Jones
2. Jack Harvey
3. Spencer Pigot
4. Max Chilton
5. Kyle Kaiser
6. Scott Hargrove
7. Matthew Brabham
8. Felix Serralles
9. Juan Piedrahita
10. Scott Anderson
11. Shelby Blackstock
12. Ethan Ringel
13. RC Enerson

Indy Lights Championship Standings

1. Ed Jones (65)
2. Jack Harvey (-15)
3. Spencer Pigot (-21)
4. Scott Hargrove (-31)
5. Kyle Kaiser (-31)