In the 2005 Rotax Nationals at Geelong, David Sera made a statement on debut in the senior ranks.   He qualified fastest and won every race on his way to victory in the Rotax Light category.

Since then, the Monster Energy-backed Arrow karts driver has gone on to win four of the following five championships in the category – the only one he didn’t win was when he was sidelined by a mechanical failure in 2006.

With youngsters like Josh de Maio, Luke Rochford, Tyler Greenbury and James Macken all registering victories at lead up events, Sera will have his work cut out for him if he is going to make it five in a row at next weekend’s 11th Annual Rotax Nationals to be held in Geelong, Victoria.

“Even though I’m only 23 years old I’m one of the elder statesmen of the Rotax class these days, there’s a lot of good young guys coming up through the ranks,” said Sera, who is one of the contestants in the Shannons Supercar Showdown television program on 7Mate.

“Young Josh De Maio won three state titles last year, (Tyler) Greenbury is a front-runner in any class he races and James Macken won his first Rotax Pro Tour event a few weeks ago, I’m sure they’ll all be tough to beat next weekend.

“The World Number Two in the category, Josh Hart from New Zealand is also making the trip back from Europe (where he is currently competing) for the event, I’m sure he’ll provide some tough opposition for us Aussies.”

Highlighting the competiveness in the Rotax Light category is the fact that it has attracted no less than 40 entries for next weekend. This is the largest number of competitors for the class since the 2002 event that saw 49 drivers take to Melbourne’s Todd Road circuit before Josh Arandt was victorious ahead of Ben Savage and Reif Corbett.

In the corresponding event at Ipswich, Queensland last year it was Sydney’s Simon Meyer who led home a CRG trifecta in the Rotax Heavy division. In the process Meyer ensured that the decade of titles in the Rotax Heavy category were ‘bookended’ the Meyer brothers.

Sydney’s Joseph Mawson has been undefeated in the Junior Max category in the opening four Rotax Pro Tour events of 2011. However, his arch-rival Pierce Lehane and fellow junior stars Michael Stewart, Renee Gracie, Liam Morey and Jaxon Evans among others, will be out to inflict Mawson’s first defeat of the year in the category’s biggest event.

With competitors from every state of the country lining up, drivers and teams will begin arriving in Geelong on Wednesday ahead of practice on Thursday and Friday with qualifying and heat races to be contested on Saturday. The championship finals will be contested on Sunday.

The Geelong Karting Club is located at Beckley Park, Geelong Rd, Corio (Adjacent to the Geelong Trotting track, North of Geelong). Admission is free for spectators.