until Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League
The final round of the IndyCar iRacing Challenge will be held on the Indianapolis oval, the home of the Indy 500.
The iRacing Challenge was introduced as a six-event series to plug the gap of the lack of real-life racing due to the coronavirus outbreak. IndyCar’s revised calendar is due to get going at Texas in June.
The series started at Watkins Glen and then moved to Barber Motorsport Park, before oval rounds at Michigan and Motegi in Japan and then a return to road courses with the Circuit of the Americas. Only Barber and COTA are real-life fixtures on the 2020 IndyCar calendar.
The last round of the series was set to be a ‘dream’ round at a track not currently on the calendar, but drivers voted to return to Indianapolis to conclude the championship.
The race will be 175 miles in total and the third oval in the series following Michigan and Motegi.
The race is likely to attract interest from drivers outside of IndyCar as its oval events have proven extremely popular. NASCAR legends Dale Earnhardt Jr and Kyle Busch competed at Michigan and Motegi respectively.
All full-time real-life teams and iRacing Challenge race winners are eligible for automatic qualification for the race, while the rest of the 33-car grid will reportedly be decided during a Wednesday qualifying session.
The race winners so far are Sage Karam, Scott McLaughlin, Simon Pagenaud and McLaren Formula 1 driver Lando Norris, who won the COTA race on his series debut earlier on Saturday.
The series will not crown a champion, but IndyCar is set to donate money to charity instead.
There has been no word on whether the IndyCar iRacing Challenge will restart after the final round next weekend.
Drivers in the series have said they will continue to race on iRacing, but whether an IndyCar-backed championship goes ahead is likely to be affected by whether its 2020 real-life championship gets restarted on time in June.
