﷽JK Vernay won on his Firestone Indy Lights debut on Sunday dominating the rain-soaked Grand Prix of St Petersburg.

Vernay, who started on the outside of the front row, held off fellow series rookie Jan Heylen on a lap 29 re-start in the #7 Lucas Slick Mist/Sam Schmidt Motorsports car and went o▨n to an 11.2338-second victory in the shortened (from 45 laps to 35) race on the 1.8-mile, 14-turn temporary street circuit.

"I am really happy today," said Vernay. "It๊ was a very good weekend since the start of practice. I didn't know this track, so I had to learn a lot. It helped with the work I did with my team. We had a great set-up on the car. Practice after practice, I was pushing more and more, and we were there, so it was good. It was hard not to have the pole, but I was very careful on the first lap. I didn't want to crash at the start of the race. It was great to win in my first weekend💫 in Indy Lights."

Cars s🌟tarted the race on slicks, with pole sitter James Hinchcliffe punted in turn 1 of the first green flag lap by the #49 Sam Schmidt Motorsports car driven by Philip Major. He was looking to make a big move on the inside (having started ninth) but braked too late to make the sharp right-hand 🅷turn.

Sebastian Saavedra e♋merged as the leader -🐈 until he spun in turn 4 of lap 5. Vernay was in position to avoid the mid-track mess and took the lead through a red flag at the completion of lap 6 for crews to change to rain tyres.

A full-course caut💜ion on lap 26 ღwhen the #29 Bryan Herta Autosport car driven by Saavedra made contact with the tyre barrier on the exit of turn 7 was the lone challenge for Vernay to overcome.

Heylen, who compete𒁏d in nine Cham🐲p Car races in 2007, couldn't overtake Vernay on the re-start with time running out.

"The conditions were difficult, especially in Turn 1. I think we made a bad set-up on the car. It was too bad I couldn't give my good friend Stefan a run for his money during the race," said Heylen. "It was nice being back in the car though. I have not been racing for almost three years. So it's good to be back, and I reallyꦦ hope that I c👍an race in some more this year. I very much enjoyed it."

Stefan Wilson meanwhile drove from🦋 the 14th starting position to finish third in the #28 Bryan Herta Autosport car and Charlie Kimball tied his series-best finish of fourth in the #26 AF🍨S Racing/Andretti Autosport car.

"I want to thank all my crew guys for working hard late last night," reflected Wilson. "I started the weekend off pretty happy with my car. I was position one in practice and position three in the race. I thought it was going to be a goo💟d weekend, but it was a bit of a roller coaster in qualifying. We had a small mistake and it cost me a gr🐼eat amount, and I had to start from the back of the field in the race.

"That quickly changed when the rain st▨arted to come down. People started going off the road as it was pretty slick out there. The white lines on the rꦫunway were treacherous, and a lot of people started making mistakes in front of me. I was in the P5 position, and after we went green after the break, I started moving up."

Gustavo Yacaman, who started 10th in the #10 Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing car, advanced five positions, while Martin Plowman finishe🅘d sixth in the #27 AFS Racing/Andretti Autosport car.ꦛ James Winslow and Jonathan Summerton finished seventh and eighth, respectively.