The Road to Indy has joined the trend of creating Esports series as substitutes to real racing during the global COVID-19 pandemic with a five-round competition that starts this weekend.

Competitors from Indy Lights, Indy Pro 2000, USF2000 beyond will race in the Road to Indy iRacing eSeries, with each round running immediately prior to IndyCar’s own iRacing-based Esports events on the same circuits.

The first race takes place at Barber Motorsports Park this Saturday, with the events in the weeks after running at Circuit of the Americas, Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s old road course layout that Formula 1 used, Road America and Mid-Ohio.

Each round will be broadcast on the Road to Indy’s usual online platforms, and will be accompanied by a new show called

‘Off the Grid’ which begins on Friday and will feature Indy Lights drivers Kyle Kirkwood, Rasmus Lindh and Robert Megennis in discussion together.

There are 30 drivers signed up for the series so far, including FIA Formula 3 Championship racer Devlin DeFrancesco at Andretti Autosport. Four of the team bosses are also racing: Ricardo Juncos (Juncos Racing), David Martinez (DEForce Racing), Peter Dempsey (Turn 3 Motorsport) and Louis Meyer (Legacy Autosport).

A 15-minute qualifying session will precede each race of the series, with registration fees for the series going towards COVID-19 relief efforts. It is unclear which car drivers will be racing in, as only the previous generation IP2000 car and IndyCar’s current machine exists in Racing, or if the three RTI series’ grids will be split for the competition.