Kaiser earns Toronto Lights win as Leist crashes

Kyle Kaiser led wire to wire Saturday for his second Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires win of the season, taking advantage of several mistakes by Matheus Leist to increase his lead in the championship on the streets of Toronto.

Kaiser jumped out to the lead at the drop of the green flag, while Leist got a bit sideways at the start, allowing Canadian Zachary Claman De Melo to slide into second. With two laps of the 1.786-mile temporary circuit in the books, Kaiser was already more than 2.4 seconds ahead. On lap 4, Leist, who was battling to keep Santi Urrutia, local Toronto favorite Dalton Kellett and Neil Alberico behind him, found himself in the Turn 8 tire barriers where he was hit from behind by Nico Jamin, forcing both cars to retire.

"I was just trying to push as hard as I could," said Leist, who is credited with a 12th-place finish. "It was very difficult to drive the car. I don't know what happened exactly. I think I missed a little bit of a braking point, missed a little bit of the apex, got a little bit of understeer, then hit the tires with the rear, and then the front. It's a shame. We were in very good position for the championship, and right now it's going to be a little bit more difficult but it doesn't matter. We're still going to fight for the championship and tomorrow is a new day."

Kaiser got a perfect jump on the lap 7 restart and could not be caught, finishing 3.6118 seconds ahead.

“It’s amazing – this is my first win on a street course," Kaiser said. "So now I can say I’ve won on an oval, a road course and a street course and this means a lot. Toronto is one of the better street courses to pass on but if you get a gap, it is really hard to get around someone. The team was telling me the gap every lap, so I knew who was behind me and how far back they were and I was using that to gauge how hard to push. It was a very conscious race, focusing on what I had to do but also being aware of what was going on behind me. But I try not to over think it and go into every race weekend to win.

"Some weekends, you don’t have the setup so you focus on not getting frustrated and running with what you have. This weekend, we had the fastest car so we maximized what we had. All the stars are aligning.”

De Melo held on for second, followed by Urrutia, Colton Herta – who jumped from eighth to fourth on the lap 7 restart – and Aaron Telitz.

“I tried to look forward as much as I could, hitting my marks and not making any mistakes," De Melo said. "I didn’t want to fight with Santi because I know he’s a tough driver to fight against. We had good pace early on but fell off a bit toward the end, so we’ll fix that and go for the win tomorrow. Since Indianapolis, I’ve worked really hard with the team, done a few sim days and looked at a lot of data – it’s been a big push mid-season. I’m really happy with the car and really happy with the team. We’ve learned so much together and they’ve taught me a lot. If it had been like this at the beginning of the year, we could have been championship contenders but it’s not over yet."

Kaiser now holds a 38-point championship lead over Leist, 248 to 211, with Herta still in third with 201 points with five races remaining.

The grid for tomorrow’s 12th round of the 16-race Indy Lights season will be set during a separate qualifying session at 9:00 a.m., with the green flag slated for 12:25 p.m. EDT. Live timing and live streaming will be available on the RoadToIndy.TV App, RoadToIndy.TV, indylights.com and indycar.com. The race will be broadcast on NBCSN at 7:00 pm EDT on Monday.