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The field has been announced for Round 6 of the 2023 Speedcafe eSeries Championship at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
A high-quality field will take to the Spanish circuit with the top 10 drivers locked in for the round including points leader and Round 5 winner Mathew Dench, Lachlan Caple, Round 1 and Round 2 winner Damon Woods, Luke Mitchinson, Round 4 winner Rob Carmichael, Christopher Ireland, Dylan O’Shea, Sebastian Flock, Marlon J McMullen and Zach Rattray-White.
Pre-qualifying took place from Pre-Qualifying to take place on Friday, June 2 to Wednesday, June 7, with Simon Nicholson setting the benchmark with a 1:40.065s.
Round 3 winner Ross Rizzo was also on the pace with a 1:40.209s, with Riley Bilson also among the front-runners with a 1:40.724s.
Speedcafe eSeries Championship Commentator Scott Rankin said pre-qualifying at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya was tightly contested.
“There is very little field spread, which indicates the level of competitiveness throughout the Speedcafe eSeries Championship field,” Rankin said.
“Simon Nicholson pre-qualified fastest in his Ferrari, but it wasn’t even a tenth back to Ross Rizzo in the Lamborghini, so the outright pace between those two is quite close.
“There are a lot of cars really clustered together from P13 to P17, those positions are only covered by three-tenths, while there are a couple of other packs up and down the field.”
Rankin expects the outing at the Spanish circuit will force drivers to alter their race strategy.
“It is going to be tough and tricky, Catalunya is a really difficult track,” he added.
“Coming off the back of Formula 1 there, the teams go from a one or two-stop strategy out to a two to three-stop strategy, that will obviously come into play in terms of tyre wear for the GT3 cars as well.
“This is one of the more unique tracks on the calendar and from a driver’s perspective, it is all about getting that set up right.”
As the Speedcafe eSeries Championship enters the second half of the season, Rankin expects there to be added focus on the title battle.
“This is where you will start to see certain drivers focusing less on the races and moreso on the championship fight,” he explained.
“Mathew Dench is a big picture driver, we’ve known that he’s been capable, he’s been right there in terms of outright raw speed, he’s put himself in a number of really good positions, but his first race victory only arrived at the last round.
“In saying that, he’s kept himself nice and clean, stayed out of drama, minimised the losses and he now has nearly a 50-point buffer at this point in time, you can’t ask anything more of him.
“Aside from Mathew, there are a number of other race winners in the top 10 including Damon Woods, Rob Carmichael and they will be keen to stay in the hunt.”
Round 6 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 6 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.
2023 Speedcafe eSeries Championship Round 6 Entry List
| 1 | Mathew Dench | – |
| 2 | Lachlan Caple | – |
| 3 | Damon Woods | – |
| 4 | Luke Mitchinson | – |
| 5 | Rob Carmichael | – |
| 6 | Christopher Ireland | – |
| 7 | Dylan O’Shea | – |
| 8 | Sebastian Flock | – |
| 9 | Marlon J McMullen | – |
| 10 | Zach Rattray-White | – |
| 11 | Simon J Nicholson | 01:40.065 |
| 12 | Ross Rizzo | 01:40.109 |
| 13 | Riley Bilson | 01:40.724 |
| 14 | Jason Bence | 01:40.760 |
| 15 | Adam Willison | 01:40.792 |
| 16 | Rob Boaden | 01:40.863 |
| 17 | Aaron Kuper2 | 01:41.078 |
| 18 | Matt Bayley | 01:41.120 |
| 19 | Daniel Yeaman | 01:41.217 |
| 20 | Seth I Brown | 01:41.235 |
| 21 | Alistair Bailes | 01:41.246 |
| 22 | Chris Barns | 01:41.379 |
| 23 | Simon Mezzomo | 01:41.495 |
| 24 | Thomas Hinss | 01:41.499 |
| 25 | Steven Bartholomew | 01:41.602 |
| 26 | Sebastian Varndell | 01:41.925 |
| 27 | Jamie McKnight | 01:42.039 |
| 28 | Chris Pellatt | 01:42.086 |
| 29 | Atsushi Osafune | 01:42.438 |
| 30 | Andrew Dishot | 01:42.563 |
| 31 | Jackson Austin2 | 01:42.672 |
| 32 | Daniel Vellacott | 01:42.814 |
| 33 | Mark Cochran | 01:43.362 |
| 34 | Shane Nouwens | 01:43.404 |
| 35 | Luke Di Berardino | 01:44.203 |
