Speedcafe eSeries Championship battle heats up

Speedcafe eSeries Championship drivers have turned their attention to the title fight, as the competition resumes in Canada.

Heading into Round 7 at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal, Canada and the final three rounds of the season, Mathew Dench leads the championship standings on 271 points, with the Round 5 winner rewarded for his consistency as the only driver to finish in the top five of every race this season.

He leads Lachlan Caple on 213 points, with Caple having only missed one top-five appearance in the six races held so far.

After missing a round due to Formula Ford racing commitments, Damon Woods bounced back with a race victory last time out at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, his third win of the season to find himself third in the standings on 199 points.

A consistent run for Luke Mitchinson sees him fourth in the standings, ahead of Dylan O’Shea who completed a remarkable drive from 34th to fourth in the race at Barcelona.

Round 4 winner Rob Carmichael, Round 3 winner Ross Rizzo, Sebastian Flock, Christopher Ireland and Aaron Kuper round out a competitive top 10 that have been locked in for the Canadian round.

Of those that took part in Pre-Qualifying, Simon Nicholson was the fastest with a 1:33.992s, over five-tenths ahead of Adam Willison with a 1:34.522s, with Zach Rattray-White also among the front-runners with a 1:34.663s.

Speedcafe eSeries Championship Commentator Scott Rankin said drivers in the hunt for the title will start to turn their focus to that, rather than outright race wins.

“As we head into the final three rounds, we will start to see drivers smarten up and think about the bigger picture, but of course they will go for the win if the opportunity is there,” Rankin said.

“Those that have been consistent have been rewarded, I mean the biggest thing is that Mathew Dench’s consistency has just pulled him so far ahead at the top, but everyone else is squabbling over the remainder of the places.

“Lachan Caple and Damon Woods are thereabouts, but they will need put together some solid drives to stay with Dench.

“Dylan O’Shea had such a big comeback drive in the last round, he needed to bank big points to really keep himself from the title fight with a couple of different drivers and he actually managed to gain places out of that.”

The last round saw the debut of the Porsche 911 GT3 992 in iRacing, with many drivers taking advantage of the one-vehicle rule swap per season, to test the upgraded Porsche, which went onto feature predominantly in the top 10 in Spain.

Rankin said the Porsche 911 GT3 992 has received an update ahead of the next round, which could mix up the order.

“The Porsche is going to be receiving a small power penalty, which is really interesting as well, because it’s really doubling down on the Porsches weakest attribute which is straight-line speed,” Rankin added.

“It is going to be interesting to see how that all plays out given that the entirety of our top 10, barring two drivers at Catalunya were in the updated Porsche.”

Round 7 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 Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya will feature a compulsory pit stop for fuel.

The broadcast for Round 7 of the 2023 Speedcafe eSeries Championship commences at 20:00 AEST live on Speedcafe.com.

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

2023 Speedcafe eSeries Championship Round 7 Entries