A strong field has been announced for Round 3 of the Speedcafe eSeries Championship at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit.

A 45-car field is expected to take to the virtual Victorian circuit for the third round of the online racing competition on Friday, April 28, with the grid including the top ten point scorers for the season to date including Race 1 and Race 2 winner Damon Woods.

The fastest of the 41 drivers that took part in pre-qualifying was Craig Edwards, who set a 1:26.065s to top the timesheets, ahead of Wayne G Hewitt (1:26.210s) and Ross Rizzo (1:26.247s).

The competitiveness of the category has increased following the introduction of prizes for the three place-getters courtesy of Supercheap Auto, with the round winner receiving a $250 voucher for first place, the runner-up to receive a $100 voucher for second place, while the third-place finisher will receive a $50 voucher.

Category Manager Shane Evans said interest in the online racing competition continues to increase following a strong start to the season.

“It has been a great start to the season, Damon Woods is going great guns and putting up a strong challenge for the other competitors in the field,” Evans said.

“We have seen some strong times in pre-qualifying at Phillip Island, there are a lot of times within a couple of tenths and it’s one of those tracks that everybody goes to and does a lot of practice laps at, so it is expected that qualifying and the race is going to be pretty competitive.

“As for the category itself, we are starting to build momentum with pre-qualifying regularly attracting strong attendance, while we have over 170 registered drivers for the competition.”

The third 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 Phillip Island will feature a compulsory pit stop for fuel.

The broadcast for Round 3 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 3 Qualifiers