Which Eseries driver has improved most?

The quality of racing in the BP Supercars All Stars Eseries has undoubtedly improved in the past couple of months, as Scott Pye made a point of yesterday.

WATCH: TOP FIVE MOMENTS OF ESERIES ROUND 8

The Eseries began with a handful of drivers known to be iRacing experts – particularly Scott McLaughlin, Anton De Pasquale and Shane van Gisbergen.

Many more though entered the 10-round competition with minimal simulator knowledge, with the likes of Supercars champions Rick Kelly and Jamie Whincup struggling to get to grips with the online way of racing.

But the fan-voted return to Phillip Island in Round 8 this week provided proof that the full-field standard has risen; the Victorian circuit was home to the inaugural race of the Eseries back in early April.

With identical conditions and set-ups in use, Supercars.com took the chance to compare qualifying times between those two visits to Phillip Island.

Besides cleaner wheel-to-wheel racing, it was clear a number of drivers have taken big steps forward in pure pace.

As a whole, the field was much, much closer.

In Round 1, 3.8 seconds separated polesitter De Pasquale and slowest qualifier Chris Pither.

Taking those same 25 regular drivers into account, the difference in Round 8 had shrunk to 2.2 seconds.

Naturally, per diminishing returns, those starting from the lowest base have made the biggest gains over the course of the competition.

Excluding wildcard James Courtney, Pither was still at the back of qualifying on the second time around at Phillip Island, but now more than 1.5 seconds faster.

Only Whincup bettered his time by more: 1.6 seconds.

Jack Smith meanwhile was the best part of eight tenths up on his maiden qualifying time.

But with those three still towards the rear of the field, arguably the driver to have made the biggest leap forward is David Reynolds.

The Erebus Motorsport star managed just 20th in Round 1 qualifying; this week he secured eighth on the grid with a time seven tenths faster.

The cards didn’t quite fall the 34-year-old’s way in race trim, but he did noticeably run up the front during Round 7 action, especially at Daytona.

Other notable qualifying improvers from Rounds 1 to 8 included Zane Goddard (three tenths faster), Lee Holdsworth (two tenths) and van Gisbergen (two tenths).

Holdsworth has excelled in rising from nowhere to be consistently in the upper midfield, while van Gisbergen has now fully got a handle on his New Zealand sim set-up.

The Red Bull Holden driver has been in dominant form of late, winning seven of the past 10 Eseries races to seize a 146-point lead over McLaughlin in the overall standings.

Round 9 next week will involve a return to oval racing at Michigan International Speedway, following an entertaining recent virtual visit to Charlotte’s oval.