The Northcliffe competitor is the eight-time Australian ironman champion and is chasing a record 10^th crown in the national series.

The third round of the Summer of Surf Series will be staged at Fingal beach on Saturday and Sunday.

The series comprises six rounds and also acts as qualification for the Nutri-Grain ironman finals.

Summer of Surf Series director Trent Goulding said there would be in excess of 300 surf-lifesavers, including all of the series leaders, at Fingal beach this weekend.

“Fingal should provide quite fair conditions, there won’t be as much luck involved and I think that will create really good racing conditions,” Goulding said.

Leading the local charge will be Redhead’s Daniel Collins, who has been slowly improving since returning from a short off-season in Europe.

Collins is in his first year of open competition and felt he was “starting to build a bit of form” after the opening two rounds of the series.

The 20-year-old placed 18^th in the first round of the series at Alexandra Headland then improved to be eighth in round two at Newport. He is 11^th overall.

The series’ top five athletes, based on their best three results, will qualify for the final. Several ironmen, including Eckstein, have already qualified based on last season’s results.

“I think I would need three top-10 finishes to have a good shot at it,” Collins said. “The biggest thing is just to get to the final race. You don’t have to be winning those earlier rounds, you’ve just got to make the final to get more points.”

Collins will be in a field of 80 ironmen competing through heats over two days for a place in the round final, where valuable points will be offer.

Alongside him will be clubmate Isak Costello, who is also chasing a place in the series final for the first time.

Costello has placed 11^th and 20^th to be 12^th overall after two rounds.

Each round also comprises individual board, swim, ski and beach events for men and women.