The 2014 Australian National Sprint Kart Championships will be go down in history for David Sera after he overtook John Pizzaro as the most successful kart driver in Australian history, claiming an unprecedented 16th & 17th national title at Cameron Park Raceway, Newcastle on the 18th, 19th & 20th of April.
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Heading into the event, Sera was tied on fifteen Australian championships with Pizzaro who had held the record since the late 1980’s. Competing aboard his own Deadly® range of karts, Sera qualified fastest in both Clubman Heavy & X30 light. “Qualifying went exceptionally well for us as we were able to maximise our speed on the new tyres. To qualify nearly three tenths faster than our opposition in Clubman Heavy is nearly unheard of with the quality of drivers in the class!”
The heat races were mixed for the Melbourne based driver, with a mechanical issue forcing him to the sidelines in heat two of Clubman Heavy but pairing that up with wins in heats one & three gave Sera a starting position of six for the fourteen lap pre-final.
Things ran slightly smoother in the X30 Light class for Sera starting from pole position for the three heat races, the Deadly Karts driver carded a second, first and first to secure pole position for the pre-final.
“I’m fortunate that the mechanical issue in heat two hasn’t forced me to start further back than sixth! The opening heat race of X30 Light was all about driving conservatively and saving my tyres for later in the weekend. The opening few laps we were driving at over one second slower than I qualified.”
Sera started the Clubman Heavy pre-final well and had moved his way up to second within the first five laps and was trying to chase down race leader Shay Mayes. After setting fastest laps along the way, Sera was able to reduce the one second lead to be trailing the bumper of Mayes. After eyeing off his competition for a few laps, Sera made one last attempt at the race win trying to overtake Mayes with an ambitious move that couldn’t be pulled off, enabling the front two karts to cross the line unchanged.
X30 Light was a great race for Sera and his Deadly ‘Vegas’ chassis edging clear in the opening laps to have a sizeable buffer over his opposition which he was able to control until the race end.
Sunday morning greeted the drivers with sunshine leading into the 20 lap main events. Once the top ten introductions took place, Clubman Heavy was the first class of the day for Sera. Starting on the unfavourable outside front row, Sera was forced to slot into third exiting the opening corner but didn’t waste long getting past former Clubman Heavy Australian Champion Shayne Piper into turn two.
Knowing he had superior speed to his opposition in the opening laps of each race compared to the end, Sera made a bold move past Mayes for the race lead down the back straight. Once able to dictate terms up front, posting his fast lap times early in the race, the long time DPE Kart technology driver opened up a large gap to the rest of the field. Sera maintained this gap for the remainder of the race, crossing the line first and becoming the first driver in history to claim a sixteenth Australian Championship.
“Heading into the final few laps knowing my opposition wouldn’t be able to catch me was a nervous feeling as you start thinking about the outcome before it’s happened! Crossing the line was a surreal experience, and gave me even more determination heading into my X30 Light final; why stop at the record!” Said an elated Sera.
The start of the X30 Light final couldn’t have worked out any better for Sera maintaining his pole position to lead the opening few laps. After starting to edge clear of his opposition, the red flag was brought out to attend to drivers who were caught up in an incident. This forced all the karts back to the pits where they would have a single file restart. With thirteen laps left, Sera lead the field away and after driving defensively for the opening lap, was again able to open up a buffer that fellow Victorian Leigh Nicolaou and cousin James Sera were not able to bridge. Sera crossed the line over one second clear of Nicolaou to take out his second championship of the day and further increased the record to seventeen Australian championships.
“An absolutely amazing weekend! To walk away with two pole positions & two victories, you couldn’t have written the script better. To be able to win my record breaking titles aboard my own brand of kart is also something very special and adds to the whole event.”
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David would like to thank DPE Kart Technology, Deadly Karts, KTEQ Rentals, J&A Kart Tuning, Adidas Motorsport & Xzuit for their continued support. David’s next race will be the second round of the CIK Stars of Karting Championship in KZ2 at Bolivar Raceway, Adelaide on the 3rd & 4th of May.
To keep up-to-date with all of David’s racing be sure to check out his new website at www.davidsera.com.au