There was bound to be plenty of surprises as Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires made its first trek to the famed 2.5-mile oval at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with the Mazda-powered Dallara IL-15, and this year's edition of the biggest race on the Mazda Road to Indy calendar did not disappoint. A surprise pole winner--Ethan Ringel of Schmidt Peterson Motorsports--and a dramatic race all culminated in the thrill of victory for last year's championship runner-up, Jack Harvey.

The new car and engine combination proved to be a fast, racy machine on an oval for the first time, with Ringel shattering the lap record around IMS with a lap of 197.866 mph (the previous lap record in qualifying was 190.177 mph, while the overall lap record was 192.301 mph). While Ringel, who has been towards the rear of the field for most of the year thus far, may have surprised the paddock with his speed, he also surprised himself by capturing the pole position.

"I'm kind of in disbelief that I'm here," Ringel said after qulifying. "My engineer has told me all year that I have to get comfortable on the oval, that Indy is a place you really have to drive the car. But since I ran that first test at Homestead, I loved it. I think that's the key with being comfortable - you have to respect it. And especially at Indianapolis, you can't go past the limits here. I've had a blast since the first lap. Going into the week, I thought I'd be happy with a mid-pack so this is a bit of a shocker. I knew the car was pretty quick and it felt pretty good, so I thought it could be a good qualifying time."

When the green flag flew, it was Ringel and Harvey leading the field from the front row, with Harvey immediately tucking in behind Ringel to get a draft and then sweeping around the outside of the pole sitter in Turn 1. From there, it was a back-and-forth affair between the teammates, with Ringel and Harvey carefully swapping the lead in the draft over the duration of the 40-lap event. While the first two SPM teammates led from the start, the other SPM duo of Scott Anderson and RC Enerson each gained one position by passing Sean Rayhall and making it an SPM 1-2-3-4.

The Ringel-Harvey duel raged on, while the gap between fourth and fifth ebbed and flowed before the SPM 1-2-3-4 train pulled away later in the race as the tire wear became more difficult to manage. As Harvey and Ringel negotiated lapped traffic, Harvey was able to use a double draft to claim the lead with five laps remaining. Ringel, who led 30 laps, appeared primed to make it a fierce fight to the finish when Carlin Racing's Ed Jones, the championship leader coming into the race, had a tire go down sending him spinning into the Turn 4 wall. It was an end to a terrible race for Carlin, as Max Chilton failed to even start the race due to a technical failure.

The Jones crash would neutralize the race with three laps remaining, handing Harvey the biggest win of his career thus far. Ringel would have to settle for second despite dominating the race, while Anderson would claim his career-best finish of third and Enerson was caboose on the SPM domination train.

Harvey now takes control of the championship points lead as the series takes several weeks off before crossing the border for the Honda Indy Toronto weekend, June 12-14.

Freedom 100 Results

1. Jack Harvey
2. Ethan Ringel
3. Scott Anderson
4. RC Enerson
5. Kyle Kaiser
6. Sean Rayhall
7. Juan Piedrahita
8. Shelby Blackstock
9. Spencer Pigot
10. Ed Jones
11. Felix Serralles
12. Max Chilton (DNS)