Woods wins Speedcafe eSeries Championship opener

Damon Woods has claimed victory in the opening round of the 2023 Speedcafe eSeries Championship at Bathurst.

Backing up his pre-qualifying form, 17-year-old Woods qualified fourth, before making his way to the front of the competitive field, featuring both top sim racers and rising talent to take the chequered flag ahead of Mathew Dench, with Luke Mitchinson making his way onto the podium from eighth on the grid.

Qualifying pacesetter Simon Nicholson ultimately finished fourth, ahead of Andrew Gilliam who qualified second, before dropping through the order to fifth.

An impressive drive from Rob Boaden saw him make his way to sixth place from 26th on the grid, with Jake Moloney finishing seventh from the rear of the field.

Riley Bilson, Christopher Ireland and Lachlan Caple rounded out the top 10.

Speedcafe.com co-owner Karl Begg said it was great to see the high level of support from young people for the maiden round of the eSeries.

“It’s fantastic to see our younger audience engage with Speedcafe.com via eSports, specifically the Speedcafe eSeries Championship,” Begg said.

“We look forward to continuing to grow our engagement with this demographic.”

Category Manager Shane Evans was pleased with the running of the event.

“We had a fantastic turnout and the racing was great, there were battles up and down the field,” Evans said.

“In terms of the results, the cream of the crop rose to the top, with Damon Woods who was fastest in pre-qualifying, making a statement towards the end of the race and putting a lead on everybody to take victory.

“The broadcast was unbelievable, the commentary was top-notch, with spectators from across the world tuning into the online race.

“It looks like we’re going to have an even bigger round next round, with over 10 drivers registering to take part in the championship during the event, growing the pool of registered drivers to over 150.”

Round 2 of the 2023 Speedcafe eSeries Championship will take place at Road America, Wisconsin, USA on Friday, April 14.

Pre-qualifying for the event will take place from Thursday, April 6 to Wednesday, April 12.

CLICK HERE to register for Speedcafe eSeries Championship.

 

Fin	St	Driver	iRacing License	Tot Pts	Race Pts	Bns Pts	Pen Pts	Int	Laps	Laps Led	Fastest Lap	Fast Lap #	Avg Lap	Inc	Status	Car #	Fast Laps	Qual Time	Total Passes	SR	iRating
1	4	D Woods	Class A	50	50			–	21	11	2:01.031	15	2:13.261	1	Running	56		2:00.955		4.99	9605
2	3	M Dench	Class A	48	45	3		-2.783	21	1	2:01.214	16	2:13.393	0	Running	83		2:00.816		2.04	7263
3	8	L Mitchinson	Class A	43	40	3		-3.375	21	2	2:01.631	9	2:13.421	0	Running	04		2:01.573		4.23	4537
4	1	S Nicholson	Class A	39	38	1		-6.315	21	7	2:01.124	9	2:13.562	1	Running	112		2:00.708		4.16	8166
5	2	A Gilliam	Class B	39	36	3		-9.521	21		2:01.359	9	2:13.714	0	Running	201		2:00.786		4.99	5428
6	26	R Boaden	Class A	34	34			-10.119	21		2:02.717	17	2:13.139	12	Running	16		2:02.279		4.91	5055
7	39	J Moloney	Class A	17	17			-13.058	21		2:01.950	19	2:10.899	16	Running	29		–		4.99	7081
8	14	R Bilson	Class B	32	32			-17.373	21		2:02.539	10	2:14.650	4	Running	995		2:01.818		2.47	3445
9	9	C Ireland	Class B	12	12			-20.397	21		2:01.841	10	2:14.232	4	Running	623		2:01.631		2.51	3229
10	7	L Caple	Class A	11	11			-20.798	21		2:01.388	9	2:16.491	5	Running	18		2:01.535		4.83	4377
11	12	T Soerono	Class A	30	30			-23.173	21		2:02.185	15	2:14.364	9	Running	777		2:01.795		3.14	5050
12	17	K Conomos	Class A	28	28			-26.489	21		2:02.155	17	2:14.521	4	Running	022		2:01.865		4.99	3792
13	18	B Jewell	Class A	26	26			-29.799	21		2:02.477	13	2:14.679	10	Running	010		2:02.013		3.45	2563
14	34	S Mezzomo	Class A	24	24			-29.846	21		2:02.954	11	2:14.617	14	Running	954		2:02.543		2.30	4020
15	11	M McLeod	Class B	22	22			-30.071	21		2:01.898	9	2:14.692	11	Running	40		2:01.758		4.43	4589
16	16	R Carmichael	Class A	20	20			-30.410	21		2:02.549	4	2:13.782	8	Running	124		2:01.858		4.54	4670
17	23	S Flock	Class A	19	19			-30.628	21		2:02.076	10	2:14.718	13	Running	84		2:02.244		4.52	4733
18	21	B Dowdall	Class B	18	18			-31.146	21		2:02.242	19	2:14.743	10	Running	24		2:02.202		3.69	4472
19	5	D O’Shea	Class A	16	16			-34.613	21		2:01.461	10	2:14.909	9	Running	19		2:01.198		4.89	6138
20	33	A Collins	Class A	15	15			-35.912	21		2:02.519	11	2:14.969	9	Running	789		2:02.500		4.99	4276
21	20	M Boylett	Class A	14	14			-37.934	21		2:02.538	14	2:15.066	11	Running	80		2:02.133		3.51	5630
22	28	C Bennett	Class A	16	13	3		-39.956	21		2:02.713	11	2:15.162	0	Running	009		2:02.329		4.99	2617
23	31	A Davis	Class B	10	10			-43.198	21		2:03.087	4	2:15.294	18	Running	955		2:02.360		2.33	1883
24	27	J Muggleton	Class A	9	9			-51.755	21		2:02.397	9	2:15.724	8	Running	81		2:02.309		3.41	5864
25	25	M Bayley	Class A	9	9			-58.255	21		2:02.217	9	2:16.034	10	Running	117		2:02.275		4.27	5234
26	35	T Russell2	Class A	8	8			-1:00.151	21		2:02.765	17	2:15.826	6	Running	156		2:02.615		2.36	3204
27	37	S Bartholomew	Class A	11	8	3		-1:19.478	21		2:02.883	11	2:17.044	0	Running	61		2:03.548		3.19	2842
28	15	S Varndell	Class A	7	7			-2:18.296	21		2:01.985	17	2:19.846	17	Running	444		2:01.857		2.55	2698
29	19	A Kuper2	Class A	7	7			-2:26.396	21		2:02.409	10	2:14.971	6	Running	105		2:02.047		4.90	5018
30	10	S Brown	Class B	6	6			-2:36.229	21		2:02.004	9	2:14.866	5	Running	5		2:01.751		3.57	1959
31	6	J Knight	Class A	6	6			-1L	20		2:02.218	9	2:14.960	4	Running	092		2:01.533		4.34	2778
32	38	K Deith	Class A	6	5	1		-1L	20		2:00.924	15	2:15.128	3	Running	3		2:23.824		3.07	9878
33	22	M McMullen	Class A	5	5			-1L	20		2:03.057	4	2:19.040	5	Running	85		2:02.231		4.99	6719
34	32	R Oliver	Class A	4	4			-1L	20		2:02.948	2	2:16.116	10	Running	074		2:02.435		2.36	3472
35	29	J Butler	Class A	4	4			-4L	17		2:02.419	10	2:18.219	8	Disconnected	329		2:02.346		4.83	2383
36	13	H Thomas-Kircher	Class A	3	3			-4L	17		2:02.264	16	2:12.273	12	Running	10		2:01.816		4.99	2832
37	24	L Den Berghe	Class A	3	3			-7L	14		2:03.220	12	2:23.785	13	Running	963		2:02.249		3.78	3072
38	30	W Hewitt	Class A	2	2			-16L	5		2:03.237	3	2:08.299	4	Disconnected	72		2:02.358		4.99	2765
40	36	B Holliday	Class A	1	1			-4L	17		2:02.718	10	2:17.134	9	DQ/Scoring Invalidated	99		2:03.020		4.22	2806