Mazda scholarship driver takes two Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires victories to claim points lead.

Spencer Pigot had a pair of nearly flawless Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires races at Barber Motorsports Park near Birmingham, Ala., a year after winning both races at the track in the Pro Mazda Championship. Pigot’s pair of wins over last year’s series runner-up Jack Harvey left him with the points lead as the Mazda Road to Indy heads to Indianapolis.

The 21-year-old from Orlando, Fla., started the first race from pole in just his fourth Indy Lights start, took the lead at the green flag and pulled away to a clear victory for Juncos Racing. Harvey (Schmidt Peterson Motorsports with Curb-Agajanian), from Lincoln, England, couldn’t keep pace with the American and finished a full 6.7109 seconds in arrears after 30 laps around the challenging 2.3-mile, 17-turn Barber Motorsports Park. Teammate RC Enerson, from New Port Richey, Fla., the youngest driver in the field at just 18, made his first visit to the podium after holding off a race-long challenge from series points leader Ed Jones (Carlin), whose three-race win streak came to an end.

Pigot followed up Saturday’s victory by leading all 35 laps of Sunday’s Round 5. He had one scare on lap 13 when series leader Jones, who had rejoined almost a lap down following an incident on the first lap, came across his bow just as Pigot was turning into the final corner of the track. Contact was made, but miraculously there was no lasting damage to either of the Mazda-powered Dallara IL-15s.

Harvey finished second again – a fairly impressive feat after breaking his thumb at Long Beach – for the fourth time in five races this season. Max Chilton (Carlin) took third to secure his first podium appearance.

Combined with a pair of thirds in the opening rounds of the season at St. Petersburg and a secondin Long Beach, the two victories were enough to propel him ahead of Jones in the championship points table by a margin of 132 to 125.

The next stop for Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires is a pair of races at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, on May 7-9. Indy Lights will be joined by the other two rungs on the Mazda Road to Indy ladder, the Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires and the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda.