WEST ALLIS, Wis. -- Pole sitter Oliver Webb and three teammates attempted to secure the 50th Firestone Indy Lights victory in the name of Sam Schmidt Motorsports two weeks ago at Belle Isle without success.
They only had to wait two weeks for the next event.
Tristan Vautier, who earlier in the day earned the pole position for the Milwaukee 100, held off Sebastian Saavedra of Team AFS by 0.3370 of a second to provide the five-time Firestone Indy Lights championship team its milestone victory. The team has been in the series since its inception in 2002.
Click it: Milwaukee 100 box score || Vautier interview || Race highlights
It was the second victory this season from the pole for Vautier, driving the No. 77 Mazda Road to Indy/SSM with Curb-Agajanian car. Teammate Esteban Guerrieri, last year's race winner who started sixth in the No. 11 Pistas Argentinas/SSM with Curb-Agajanian car, advanced to third place.
By virtue of the three bonus points for the pole (1) and leading the most laps (2), Vautier leaped Guerrieri for the championship points lead by 241-238 heading to the Iowa Speedway next week.
"It was a great race; we were in control. The end was a little harder with the lapped traffic to manage, but awesome day, awesome job from the team," said Vautier, who has posted top-five finishes in all six of his starts. "I see my teammate Esteban made it back to the podium so great job from him from sixth and a tough day, so we have two cars on the podium.
"I didn’t get the 50th pole, but real happy to get the 50th win. What an awesome team."
Saavedra, who overtook Victor Carbone on the first lap for second, hung with Vautier following two restarts and closed on the final laps. But he couldn't get a run to make the pass.
"For those last 10 laps I was pushing, giving it everything I got," said Saavedra, who is third in the standings. "The 27 car handled amazing with the Firestone Firehawk tires. I’m not happy because I wanted that first place, but it’s very important points for the championship."
David Ostella, driving the No. 22 TMR-Global Precast-Xtreme Coil Drilling car, overtook Carlos Munoz in the No. 26 Team Dialy-Ser car for Andretti Autosport on the final lap for fourth. Victor Czarbone finished sixth in the No. 3 Mav TV/Nevoni/SSM with Curb-Agajanian entry.
"The last 20 laps I was flying out there," said Ostella, who tied his series-best finish set in his debut at St. Petersburg in 2011. "It is so good to finish a race after coming off of two races where I didn’t finish. Being in the top five is amazing and I can’t take the team enough. They did a wicked job. I’ve been sick all day and fallen asleep between every session. The team worked so hard though to give me a good car. It was an amazing race."