Newly-formed Top Gun Racing aspires to field an entry for RC Enerson once the 2020 NTT IndyCar Series championship gets under way. The outfit’s first formative step towards reality will come in Enerson’s attempt to qualify for the final IndyCar iRacing Challenge event on Saturday with the No. 99 entry carrying sponsorship from Hagerty insurance.

TGR’s owners, which include former CART IndyCar Series entrant Gary Trout, and Bill Throckmorton, who leads the Grant King vintage restoration business, have been busy securing sponsorship, arranging a new shop for the program in Brownsburg, Indiana, sourcing a transporter, identifying pit crew, and acquiring a Dallara DW12 chassis of its own to use for an anticipated Indy 500 debut in August.

“We’ve been in contact with Gary and his team since December,” Enerson told RACER. “The iRacing event is an opportunity for sponsors to get associated and see what we can do. We have Hagerty on the car for this and we’re hoping that manifests on the IndyCar racing side. Gary and Bill are full-fledged committed to getting this moving along as quickly as possible.”

Like Enerson, Trout and Throckmorton hope to qualify for the virtual iRacing Challenge finale at IMS, and use the momentum to finalize its IndyCar program, which also includes coming to terms with an engine partner.

“We are looking forward to qualifying and then racing at the computerized Indianapolis Motor Speedway, even a virtual race is a big deal,” Throckmorton said. “A lot of effort has gone into this and we’d like to thank everyone involved.”