The opening round of the 2023 Speedcafe eSeries Championship will see 40 drivers take to the track in GT3 machinery at Bathurst.

Pre-qualifying for Round 1 of the 2023 season at the iconic Mount Panorama Motor Racing Circuit on the iRacing platform took place from March 24 – 29, with 86 competitors taking to the track across six sessions.

Of those 86 competitors, 40 have qualified for Round 1, with the remaining 46 to take part in a consolation race in the lead-up to the main event on Friday, March 31.

Round 1 will see a high-quality field with the likes of top sim racers Josh Muggleton, Damon Woods, Kody Deith, Andrew Gilliam, Twitch streamer Mitchell McLeod, Aussie Racing Cars driver Josh Anderson and SuperUtes racer Aaron Borg, as well as a host of competitors from Supercars iRacing categories set to take part in the event.

Category Manager Shane Evans said it was great to see a high-level of interest in the eSeries.

“It’s great to see the amount of drivers that have signed up wanting to take part in the Speedcafe eSeries Championship,” Evans said.

“We have 150 registered drivers, with 86 taking part in pre-qualifying.

“It’s been a bit of a frenzied effort at the back end for us guys trying to get everyone locked in and ready to go, but it’s been great.

“It is shaping up to be a fantastic season.”

Round 1 will commence with a 45-minute practice session, with the times from that session to determine the three qualifying groups.

The bottom 12 will then take part in a 10-minute qualifying session, followed by the next group of 13 drivers to take part in a 10-minute session, before the top 15 from practice and featured driver Josh Muggleton take part in the final 10-minute qualifying session to complete the grid for the race.

The 45-minute race around Mount Panorama will feature a compulsory pit stop for fuel.

The consolation race will take place at 19:00 AEDT, before the broadcast for Round 1 of the 2023 Speedcafe eSeries Championship commences at 20:00 AEDT on Speedcafe TV.

2023 Speedcafe eSeries Championship – Round 1 Qualifiers

1. Damon Woods – 02:00.350
2. Kody Deith – 02:00.819
3. Mathew Dench – 02:00.830
4. Alexander Bird – 02:00.838
5. Joshua Anderson – 02:00.854
6. Simon Nicholson – 02:00.948
7. Andrew Gilliam – 02:01.037
8. Lachlan Caple – 02:01.097
9. Riley Bilson – 02:01.381
10. Henry Thomas-Kircher – 02:01.388
11. Dylan O’Shea – 02:01.388
12. Jason Bence – 02:01.389
13. Sebastian Varndell – 02:01.473
14. Jarryd Knight – 02:01.536
15. Christopher Ireland – 02:01.572
16. Kenny Conomos – 02:01.618
17. Jake Moloney – 02:01.647
18. Mitchell McLeod – 02:01.649
19. Brenton Jewell – 02:01.674
20. Sebastian Flock – 02:01.696
21. Jesse Butler – 02:01.782
22. Aaron Borg – 02:01.835
23. Ashley Collins – 02:01.835
24. Tao Ck Soerono – 02:01.839
25. Matthew Boylett – 02:01.847
26. Leigh Van Den Berghe – 02:01.855
27. Luke Mitchinson – 02:01.863
28. Marlon J McMullen – 02:01.918
29. Simon Mezzomo – 02:01.941
30. Seth Brown – 02:01.949
31. Rob Carmichael – 02:01.969
32. Matt Bayley – 02:01.998
33. Wayne Hewitt – 02:02.029
34. Aaron Kuper – 02:02.033
35. Blake Dowdall – 02:02.089
36. Ash Davis – 02:02.107
37. Ray Oliver – 02:02.168
38. Ben Holliday – 02:02.170
39. Timothy Russell – 02:02.200
40. Corey Bennett – 02:02.253