Lando Norris will return for his second iRacing IndyCar Challenge run at Indianapolis Motor Speedway this weekend as he is part of the 33 drivers entry list.
The driver list is pretty similar to last weekend’s Circuit of the Americas, with McLaren F1 driver Norris continuing on to race for Arrow McLaren SP. He will be partnered by Patricio O’Ward and Oliver Askew to make it a three-car line-up.
Interestingly, Norris hasn’t been named by F1 to compete in this weekend’s Dutch Virtual GP, which will take place at Interlagos. The Brit hasn’t managed to start the game on three occasions and it could be that he may not compete at all due to issues. Also possible is that he wants to focus his attention on iRacing.
Among newcomers for this weekend’s iRacing IndyCar Challenge are Supercars James Davison, RC Enerson, and Stefan Wilson, with the former driving for BYRD / Petry / Hayward / Belardi, Enerson driving for Top Gun Racing, and the latter’s team not disclosed.
One driver who took a hiatus for a few rounds but will now be returning, is former F1 driver Scott Speed, who it seems will be returning with a team other than Andretti, as that spot – which he previously occupied – is now filled by Marco Andretti.
The favorites for the 70-lap include 2019 Indy 500 winner Simon Pagenaud, who won the last two virtual ovals before COTA, and his Penske teammate Will Power, who has been a front-runner in iRacing IndyCar Challenge since the very beginning.
As he personally admitted, Norris is a wild card, and not expected to do exceptionally well at IMS, where he has little experience. His engineer Andrew Jarvis is also new to ovals, which makes the Brit an unlikely candidate for the win but his pace could be a difference.
Here is the full entry list for Saturday’s race:
Josef Newgarden, Sebastien Bourdais, Pato O’Ward, Oliver Askew, Marcus Ericsson, Scott Dixon, Felix Rosenqvist, Will Power, Tony Kanaan, Graham Rahal, Santino Ferrucci, Ed Carpenter, Rinus VeeKay, Simon Pagenaud, Sage Karam, Zach Veach, Alexander Rossi, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Takuma Sato, Conor Daly, James Davison, Scott McLaughlin, Dalton Kellett, Alex Palou, Max Chilton, Jack Harvey, Colton Herta, Marco Andretti, RC Enerson, Lando Norris, Helio Castroneves, Stefan Wilson, Scott Speed.
Here’s Felix Rosenqvist on rivals practicing
Here’s Lando Norris on how work with Jarv helped in IndyCar win
Here’s Lando Norris and Colton Herta reliving their old days
Here’s how Lando Norris won iRacing IndyCar Challenge at COTA
Here’s Lando Norris on Indy500 interest