Woods goes back-to-back in Speedcafe eSeries Championship

Damon Woods has claimed back-to-back victories in the 2023 Speedcafe eSeries Championship, triumphing in Round 2 at Road America.

Woods took the chequered flag in the #56 BMW by 4.7 seconds over Matthew Dench’s Ferrari, with Lachlan Caple rounding out the podium in a Mercedes-AMG.

In the preceding Qualifying session, Chris Ireland (BMW) was on the pace early, setting a benchmark of 2.03.023s.

Most drivers would have issues with bringing their tyres into the optimum ranges for their qualifying laps and that would leave Ireland at the top of the timesheets through to the next group of qualifying.

In the ‘Fast 15’ shootout, the race to go to the top would be between Dench and Woods, with the latter coming out on top with a 2.02.398s.

This would set the grid with all four manufacturers inside the top seven cars.

At the drop of the green flag,  Woods led the way into Turn 1, as Mitchell Mcleod and Rob Boaden (BMW) found trouble at the opening corner.

Later in the lap, early qualifying pacesetter Ireland would spin and narrowly avoid the barriers, dropping him from third to 25th.

At the head of the field, Woods led Dench who settled in behind and looked to be conserving tyres and fuel in the early parts of the race.

From there, the duo broke away from the rest of the field, which settled into a rhythm, targeting the pit window opening between 20 and 25 minutes into the race.

A head-to-head battle ensued between Jarryd Knight’s BMW and Thomas Hinns’ Mercedes, with the duel continuing throughout the 45 minutes of the race.

Dench started to lift the pace just before the midpoint of the race and go after Wood which lead to a mistake and contact with the wall.

The consequent steering damage would hamper his pace and lock him into second place.

The big winner out of the pit cycle was 17-year-old Lachlan Caple in the #18 Mercedes.

Caple was aggressive early, after qualifying outside of the top 10, moving into sixth before the stops before making several spots through the lane, minimising the time of his pit stop.

After the pit cycle was completed, Hewitt’s Lamborghini resumed the race in third ahead of Caple’s Mercedes in fourth, before the latter surpassed him for third in a stunning drive from 12th on the grid.

Hewitt would then continue to struggle inside the final 10 minutes of the race, before catching the inside grass at the final turn sending him back to 15th, with his streak of bad luck continuing.

Another spin on the final lap of the race dropped him outside of the top 20.

At the chequered flag, it was Woods from Dench, with Caple rounding out the podium.

Luke Mitchinson (BMW) was fourth from Adam Willison (Porsche) in fifth, with Andre Yousiff (Ferrari), Aaron Kuper (BMW), Flock, Ben Faulkner (Lamborghini) and Hinns rounding out the top 10.

Round 3 of the 2023 Speedcafe eSeries Championship will take place at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit on Friday, April 28.

Register here for the Speedcafe eSeries Championship to get involved in the high-speed GT3 category.

Pos	Class Pos		Class	Car #	Driver	Start Pos	Out		Interval	Laps Led	Average Lap Time	Fastest Lap Time	Fast Lap#	Laps Comp	Inc	Club
1	1		Hosted All Cars	56	Damon Woods	1	Running	Laps		22	2:05.458	2:02.803	2	22	5	Australia/NZ
2	2		Hosted All Cars	83	Mathew Dench	2	Running	Laps	-04.708	0	2:05.261	2:02.816	2	22	8	Australia/NZ
3	3		Hosted All Cars	18	Lachlan Caple	12	Running	Laps	-24.174	0	2:06.556	2:03.603	14	22	6	Australia/NZ
4	4		Hosted All Cars	04	Luke Mitchinson	6	Running	Laps	-24.661	0	2:06.579	2:03.479	20	22	3	Australia/NZ
5	5		Hosted All Cars	98	Adam Willison	7	Running	Laps	-24.997	0	2:06.594	2:03.893	21	22	3	Australia/NZ
6	6		Hosted All Cars	900	Andre F. Yousiff	5	Running	Laps	-30.684	0	2:06.853	2:03.682	3	22	19	Australia/NZ
7	7		Hosted All Cars	105	Aaron Kuper2	16	Running	Laps	-31.016	0	2:06.867	2:03.966	20	22	1	Australia/NZ
8	8		Hosted All Cars	84	Sebastian Flock	11	Running	Laps	-31.515	0	2:06.890	2:03.818	22	22	7	Australia/NZ
9	9		Hosted All Cars	028	Ben Faulkner4	8	Running	Laps	-33.409	0	2:06.976	2:03.862	13	22	15	Australia/NZ
10	10		Hosted All Cars	52	Thomas Hinss	19	Running	Laps	-35.092	0	2:07.052	2:03.575	20	22	6	Australia/NZ
11	11		Hosted All Cars	623	Christopher Ireland	4	Running	Laps	-35.943	0	2:07.092	2:03.623	11	22	12	Australia/NZ
12	12		Hosted All Cars	777	Tao C.K. Soerono	18	Running	Laps	-40.076	0	2:07.279	2:03.987	9	22	11	Australia/NZ
13	13		Hosted All Cars	349	Jesse Butler	17	Running	Laps	-40.083	0	2:07.279	2:04.058	4	22	5	Australia/NZ
14	14		Hosted All Cars	156	Timothy Russell2	20	Running	Laps	-44.661	0	2:07.487	2:04.020	15	22	10	Australia/NZ
15	15		Hosted All Cars	85	Marlon J McMullen	24	Running	Laps	-44.911	0	2:07.498	2:04.031	4	22	1	Australia/NZ
16	16		Hosted All Cars	17	Zach Rattray-White	10	Running	Laps	-45.846	0	2:07.542	2:03.739	8	22	9	Australia/NZ
17	17		Hosted All Cars	022	Kenny Conomos	28	Running	Laps	-48.298	0	2:07.652	2:04.086	4	22	4	Australia/NZ
18	18		Hosted All Cars	4	Aaron M Borg	13	Running	Laps	-48.433	0	2:07.659	2:04.088	8	22	14	Australia/NZ
19	19		Hosted All Cars	10	Henry Thomas-Kircher	32	Running	Laps	-49.198	0	2:07.693	2:04.130	15	22	7	Australia/NZ
20	20		Hosted All Cars	86	Chiu Kang	31	Running	Laps	-56.218	0	2:08.012	2:03.853	10	22	5	Australia/NZ
21	21		Hosted All Cars	127	Russ Green2	21	Running	Laps	-59.476	0	2:08.161	2:04.404	15	22	15	Australia/NZ
22	22		Hosted All Cars	954	Simon Mezzomo	23	Running	Laps	-1:00.235	0	2:08.195	2:04.344	3	22	13	Australia/NZ
23	23		Hosted All Cars	72	Wayne G Hewitt	3	Running	Laps	-1:02.418	0	2:08.295	2:03.793	2	22	5	Australia/NZ
24	24		Hosted All Cars	16	Rob Boaden	25	Running	Laps	-1:06.615	0	2:08.485	2:03.960	16	22	6	Australia/NZ
25	25		Hosted All Cars	8	Fitzroy Beaumont	27	Running	Laps	-1:07.585	0	2:08.529	2:04.340	10	22	2	Australia/NZ
26	26		Hosted All Cars	026	Oliver Patterson2	35	Running	Laps	-1:10.160	0	2:08.646	2:04.933	15	22	2	Australia/NZ
27	27		Hosted All Cars	995	Riley Bilson	38	Running	Laps	-1:12.957	0	2:08.773	2:04.247	8	22	18	Australia/NZ
28	28		Hosted All Cars	61	Steven Bartholomew	30	Running	Laps	-1:13.705	0	2:08.499	2:04.302	19	22	10	Australia/NZ
29	29		Hosted All Cars	46	Cameron Edwards2	33	Running	Laps	-1:17.964	0	2:09.000	2:04.779	14	22	2	Australia/NZ
30	30		Hosted All Cars	100	Jason Bence	22	Running	Laps	-1:18.111	0	2:07.327	2:03.421	22	22	5	Australia/NZ
31	31		Hosted All Cars	035	Robbie Bradbury	37	Running	Laps	-1:21.337	0	2:09.154	2:05.677	18	22	0	Australia/NZ
32	32		Hosted All Cars	018	Atsushi Osafune	29	Running	Laps	-1:46.853	0	2:09.988	2:04.686	7	22	8	Japan
33	33		Hosted All Cars	092	Jarryd Knight	9	Disconnected	Laps	-1 L	0	2:07.182	2:03.953	4	21	8	Australia/NZ
34	34		Hosted All Cars	5	Seth I Brown	34	Disconnected	Laps	-9 L	0	2:10.099	2:04.761	3	13	7	Australia/NZ
35	35		Hosted All Cars	99	Ben Holliday	26	Disconnected	Laps	-13 L	0	2:10.288	2:04.396	8	9	6	Australia/NZ
36	36		Hosted All Cars	40	Mitchell McLeod	14	Disconnected	Laps	-22 L	0	–	–	–	0	4	Australia/NZ
37	37		Hosted All Cars	117	Matt Bayley	15	Disconnected	Laps	-22 L	0	–	–	–	0	0	Australia/NZ
38	38		Hosted All Cars	027	Jamie McKnight	36	Disconnected	Laps	-22 L	0	–	–	–	0	0	Australia/NZ
39	39		Hosted All Cars	000	Keegan H Sutton-Baker	39	Running	Laps	-22 L	0	–	–	–	0	0	Australia/NZ
40	40		Hosted All Cars	955	Ash Davis	40	Disconnected	Laps	-22 L	0	–	–	–	0	0	Australia/NZ