Speedcafe eSeries Championship field set for Sandown
A strong field has been announced for Round 4 of the 2023 Speedcafe eSeries Championship
A strong field has been announced for Round 4 of the 2023 Speedcafe eSeries Championship at Sandown International Motor Raceway.
The fourth round of the online racing competition, which will take place tonight on the iRacing platform, is set to feature a quality field with the top ten locked in for the event including Mathew Dench, Round 1 and Round 2 winner Damon Woods, Lachlan Caple, Luke Mitchinson, Sebastian Flock, Kenny Conomos, Adam Willison, Simon Mezzomo, Riley Bilson and Dylan O’Shea.
Pre-qualifying took place from Friday, May 5 to Wednesday, May 10, with SuperUtes driver Aaron Borg the fastest of the 33 drivers to qualify for the event with a 1:06.773s, followed by Phillip Island round winner Ross Rizzo (1:06.825s), with Jake Moloney (1:06.850s) also on the pace.
Speedcafe eSeries Championship Commentator Scott Rankin expects it to be a tightly contested event.
“It will be extremely competitive, we have a strong group of drivers taking part,” Rankin said.
“In terms of pre-qualifying, it’s starting to look like we’ve got a consistent batch of drivers the pace is reasonably consistent, and we’re starting to see who the real contenders are from the pre-qualifying.
“Aaron Borg showed strong pace as the fastest qualifier and yet again, Ross Rizzo has found himself at the top of the timesheets, he’s the driver to really contend with at the moment on raw pace.
“As for the overall group, we have four potential drivers capable of fighting at the top, we have Mathew Dench, Damon Woods, Lachlan Caple and Ross Rizzo.
“I’m really keen to see Borg’s pace, he can race for individual round victories and I think that makes him an outright Dark Horse and somebody to watch.”
Rankin believes the shorter lap time around Sandown will generate action-packed racing.
“The frontrunners will have their work cut out for them, with lapped traffic likely to be a huge issue around here,” he added.
“In pre-qualifying, the entire field was separated by two seconds across the course, it’s going to be an issue and the drivers are just going to have to get on with it, there is nothing they can really do about that.
“In terms of racing, the drivers will look at more of a medium downforce setup, they will look to sacrifice a little bit of downforce to actually generate some more lap time.
“I think we’re gonna see single-file racing, it’s very difficult for a GT3 car to get an overtake done, so drivers will have to make calculated moves.”
The fourth round of the 2023 Speedcafe eSeries Championship will commence this evening with a 45-minute practice session, with the times from that session to determine the three qualifying groups.
The three qualifying groups will each take part in a 10-minute session that will set the grid for the race.
The 45-minute race around Sandown will feature a compulsory pit stop for fuel.
The broadcast for Round 4 of the 2023 Speedcafe eSeries Championship commences at 20:00 AEST live on Speedcafe.com, with the main race expected to take place at approximately 20:45 AEST.
Register here for the Speedcafe eSeries Championship to get involved in the high-speed GT3 category.
Speedcafe eSeries Championship Round 4 Qualifiers
| 1 | Mathew Dench | – |
| 2 | Damon Woods | – |
| 3 | Lachlan Caple | – |
| 4 | Luke Mitchinson | – |
| 5 | Sebastian Flock | – |
| 6 | Kenny Conomos | – |
| 7 | Adam Willison | – |
| 8 | Simon Mezzomo | – |
| 9 | Riley Bilson | – |
| 10 | Dylan O’Shea | – |
| 11 | Aaron M Borg | 01:06.773 |
| 12 | Ross Rizzo | 01:06.825 |
| 13 | Jake Moloney | 01:06.850 |
| 14 | Christopher Ireland | 01:06.872 |
| 15 | Rob Carmichael | 01:06.904 |
| 16 | Jarryd Knight | 01:06.990 |
| 17 | Ben Dowel | 01:07.020 |
| 18 | Ray Oliver | 01:07.026 |
| 19 | Steven Bartholomew | 01:07.036 |
| 20 | Wayne G Hewitt | 01:07.080 |
| 21 | Russ Green2 | 01:07.080 |
| 22 | Thomas Hinss | 01:07.098 |
| 23 | Aaron Kuper2 | 01:07.109 |
| 24 | Rob Boaden | 01:07.157 |
| 25 | Marlon J McMullen | 01:07.199 |
| 26 | Zach Rattray-White | 01:07.211 |
| 27 | Leigh Williamson | 01:07.297 |
| 28 | Jackson Austin2 | 01:07.382 |
| 29 | Fitzroy Beaumont | 01:07.395 |
| 30 | Brodie Shepherd | 01:07.411 |
| 31 | Cameron Edwards2 | 01:07.496 |
| 32 | Robbie Bradbury | 01:07.498 |
| 33 | Tyson Hanmer | 01:07.513 |
| 34 | Chris Barns | 01:07.615 |
| 35 | Jamie McKnight | 01:07.651 |
| 36 | Alistair Bailes | 01:07.832 |
| 37 | Atsushi Osafune | 01:07.863 |
| 38 | Gordon Smith2 | 01:07.981 |
| 39 | Mark Cochran | 01:08.021 |
| 40 | Andrew Dishot | 01:08.087 |
| 41 | Harry V Cardamone | 01:08.681 |
| 42 | Shane Nouwens | 01:08.721 |
| 43 | Daniel Vellacott | 01:08.731 |
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