A Saskatoon-based motorsports team is expanding to the Indy Lights racing program.
Michael Duncalfe, the owner of Exclusive Autosport, said they plan to field at least one entry next season in the series.
“When I started Exclusive Autosport in 2013, competing in the Road to Indy was always the goal, however, it seemed like a distant reality,” Duncalfe said.
“To be sitting here, announcing that we are expanding to Indy Lights and have a four-tiered ladder system after seven years of competition, is one of the proudest moments of my career.”
Duncalfe started Exclusive Autosport in 2013 and over the last six years, it has become the winningest team in the Canadian Formula 1600 series, with 133 wins and 17 championships.
The team expanded to the USF2000 Championship in 2017 and the Indy Pro 2000 Championship in 2018, and has been a winner at both those levels: three wins and 10 podiums in USF2000 and five wins and 12 podiums in Indy Pro 2000.
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The addition of the Indy Light series makes Exclusive Autosport the only open-wheel racing team in North America with an internal ladder system bridging F1600 racing to Indy Lights.
“Typically we get drivers 13-14 years of age that will progress from go-karts into the Formula 1600 program and from there they’ll enter the Road to Indy with the first level being USF2000,” Duncalfe explained.
After a year or two at that level, Duncalfe said drivers move up to Indy Pro 2000.
“Then the last levels, Indy Lights before Indy Car.”
The Road to Indy is a development system allowing drivers to advance to the next step in a ladder system. It also features a champion’s scholarship at every level.
In 2020, the Indy Lights champion will be awarded a scholarship worth US$1-million towards the IndyCar series, and a minimum of three races including the Indianapolis 500.
The road towards that championship for Exclusive Autosport starts on Oct. 19.
The team has acquired a Dallara IL-15 chassis, which shares similarities with an Indy car, and will be testing it over two days at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The Indy Lights series starts on March 14, 2020, with a 1.8-mile street circuit course at St. Petersburg, Fla., and concludes on Sept. 20 on a 2.238-mile road course at Laguna Seca in California.
The series consists of 18 races on six road courses, two street circuits, and two oval track events.
Previous Indy Lights champions include Canadians Paul Tracy and Greg Moore.
Moore holds the record for most wins in a season — 10 in 1995 — and most wins — 13.
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