Dench wins Speedcafe eSeries Championship race at Imola

Mathew Dench has claimed his maiden Speedcafe eSeries Championship race victory at Imola.

Dench secured victory after 45 minutes of racing at Autodromo Enzo Dino Ferrari taking the chequered flag ahead of Dylan O’Shea with Daniel Yeaman rounding out the podium.

The Team PGZ driver demonstrated strong pace in Qualifying, setting a 1:40.514s to sit on top of the timesheets, before Lachlan Caple seized P1 with a 1:40.399s, to make it five different pole sitters from as many races.

As the green flag dropped, Caple led proceedings from Super3 Series driver and 2020 Speedcafe.com GT3 Eseries, presented by Kincrome Tools title winner Jobe Stewart, Andrew Gilliam, with Dench in fourth and O’Shea in fifth.

The first major move of the race arrived when Jason Bence passed Round 4 podium finisher Chris Ireland for ninth with 41 minutes left on the clock.

A few minutes later Stewart was on the rear bumper of Caple, commencing a battle between the duo for the race lead.

There is contact between the pair the following lap when Caple loses the rear at the hairpin and gets on the brakes heavy, with Stewart running into the rear of the race leader, causing the former to drop to sixth in the order, before settling into line.

Further back in the field, Round 4 winner Rob Carmichael was on the move early, moving up two spots from 24th in the opening stanza of the race.

At the head of the field, Caple was forced to defend hard from Gilliam, who led a five-car procession consisting of O’Shea, Andre Yousiff, Stewart, Dench and Yeaman after 15 minutes of racing.

Shortly afterwards, the compulsory pit stop window opened, causing Yousiff and Stewart to immediately file into pit lane as part of an undercut strategy.

An incident on the main straight between Robbie Bradbury and Gordon Smith triggered a vast majority of the drivers to pit expecting the Speedcafe.com Safety Car to come out, with Caple rejoining the field ahead of Gilliam during the pit cycle.

However following their pit stops, Dench, O’Shea and Yeaman emerge ahead of Caple, who then faced pressure from Gilliam and Stewart with 18 minutes remaining in the race.

Chaos would ensue two minutes later as Tao Soerono found himself in the wall immediately followed by Gilliam tagging Caple, dropping the duo to seventh and 10th in the order.

As the final third of the race commenced, Dench led the way from O’Shea, Yeaman, Stewart, Yousiff, Willison, Gilliam, Tom Freer, Zach Rattray-White and Caple.

Dench would go onto take the chequered flag ahead of O’Shea and Yeaman, as Caple steadily made his way back up to fourth in the final minutes.

Freer, Rattray-White, Ireland, Bence, Aaron Kuper and Marlon McMullen rounded out the top 10.

After Round 5, Dench now leads the point standings ahead of Caple, while Round 1 and Round 2 winner Damon Woods has dropped to third in the points standings due to his omission from the outing.

Round 6 of the Speedcafe eSeries Championship will take place at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on June 9, with Pre-Qualifying to take place on June 2 – 7.

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

2023 Speedcafe eSeries Championship Round 5 Results