“With Max going out and winning for Jules on Saturday, it was almost like destiny happening; you see it every now and again, and you know something different is taking place.” ~ Trevor Carlin.

Max Chilton’s stirring run to pole position last Saturday and moving win a few hours later on the 0.875-mile Iowa oval would be regarded as a remarkable achievement for any rookie groomed on European road courses. Cast within the context of the anguish he faced, and the sense of duty that soon followed, Chilton’s result was astonishing.

In the art of turning left, the Briton was admittedly short on expertise, and with just one oval race on his CV, few would have pegged Chilton as a threat for pole or scheduled the 24-year-old for a visit to Victory Lane.

Chilton’s mastery of the physical Iowa bullring in the Indy Lights series came as a surprise for a driver fresh from Formula 1, but as many witnessed, he was filled with determination beyond measure after learning his close friend and Marussia F1 teammate Jules Bianchi died unexpectedly. It ended a sorrow-filled story where hope for the Frenchman’s recovery went unfulfilled.

Driving for Trevor Carlin, Chilton has been back among friends in Carlin Racing’s powerhouse program, and from that comforting base, Max seemingly willed himself to victory amid Iowa’s vast corn fields. With immense weight and responsibility to bear, Chilton delivered on a day—and in a situation—where only a win would suffice.

As Carlin observed, it appeared there was more than Chilton’s natural talent on display, and even Max wonders if a bit of divine intervention might have been involved.

“I think someone was looking down on me,” Chilton said. “You couldn’t have written that kind of result beforehand. It was tragic. I found out going to bed Friday night, and didn’t sleep particularly well the night before qualifying. To beat the Schmidt team, the kings on ovals, was a tall task, and when we did get pole, I didn’t show any emotion.

“I went into shock when I heard the news and didn’t really show anything outwardly. When they interviewed me before I got in the car for qualifying, it all started to hit home, it started to come out. We’d battled incredibly hard for almost two years as teammates, and I really wanted to win the pole and win the race for Jules.”

Chilton’s Carlin Racing team is also brand-new to ovals, not to mention racing in America. They’ve been a threat at every road and street course so far, and that’s where their menacing presence was supposed to end.

“It’s all very new to me and the team with oval racing; I missed all the pre-season tests and even at my first oval race in Indianapolis; I wasn’t able to race because we had a fuel leak before the start, so really, my first proper oval weekend was a week before Iowa at Milwaukee,” Chilton noted. “I jumped in at the deep end there, felt a little uneasy; ovals are a lot for a European driver to get used to, but as Milwaukee went on, I started to find where you needed to make speed.”

By taking what he learned at the flat The Milwaukee Mile and applying it to Iowa’s steep banking, Chilton looked like a short track veteran within a handful of laps. Compared to Superspeedways where the quality of chassis and aero settings are often more important than the caliber of talent behind the wheel, Chilton immediately responded to Iowa’s rough and rapid layout where the driver makes the difference.

“Going into Iowa, I also missed the testing there, but in my 12 years of driving cars, I had that inner feeling, and after five laps, I felt that I’d gotten the hang of it,” he continued. “I felt comfortable. My kind of background trains you to be at home with a car bouncing around at the limit in fast corners, and that’s exactly what Iowa is like, except it’s that way the entire time.

“It isn’t like the big ovals where you’re flat out the whole time and carving the biggest arc possible; you have to drive the car on the limit the whole way around, and this was a lot more technique involved which fit my driving style. You had to work every second of each lap.”

Starting from the front row, Chilton streaked away, lapping at average speeds close to 160 mph, and went on to lead 87 of the 100-lap contest. It was a virtuoso performance in every sense, and spoke to the need he felt to honor Bianchi in ways that could not be expressed with words.

“Especially because I stepped back from Formula 1, people expect you to dominate a series like Indy Lights, but it isn’t that simple,” he remarked. “And certainly, no one expected me to get my first win on a small oval. Going in, I just realized how much I wanted to do this for Jules and went for it straight away.

“There were something like 13 consecutive laps where I was being blocked by backmarkers and lost the lead, and I’ll tell you, there were a lot of expletives coming out over the radio. I was getting quite frustrated. I’m normally quite calm in the car, but I knew I had to win the race for my mate. It was a very special race and it was dedicated to Jules.”

For Carlin, who’s seen everyone from Sebastian Vettel to Daniel Ricciardo win in his cars, Chilton’s purpose-filled Iowa drive was one for the ages.

“That’s the best job he’s ever done,” Carlin said. “Max was inspired to do it for Jules. It’s as simple as that. And he went out there and did it. He rose to the challenge and earning a win was not a coincidence.”

Chilton rang shortly after arriving home from Bianchi’s funeral on Tuesday. Burying a friend is never easy, and saying goodbye to a teammate can be even harder, and with time to decompress, he spoke with warmth and reverie about Jules. Iowa helped Chilton to focus his sorrow and anger into an epic, breakthrough performance, and with a few days to process the highs and lows, his thoughts turned to celebration.

As he closed the conversation, Chilton spoke of the extraordinary person whose talent and character made quite an impression.

“After his funeral, some of us gathered to celebrate his life. There was a great photo of us raising a toast to Jules, and some commented we should not have been smiling, but they obviously didn’t know him,” he said. “He lived his life in a very full way, and brought positivity to everything he did. I’m sure he was smiling as well.

“We are, naturally, saddened by what transpired, and it’s for those things that awaited Jules. I spent two years going up against him in Formula 1, and he was destined to be a champion. He will be greatly missed.”

Chilton’s Hollywood ending in America’s Heartland also won’t be forgotten.

“Iowa was a special weekend that I expect will stay with us forever,” he added. “We can only hope Jules would have been proud.”