David Sera’s Kart Class outfit will resemble a karting version of the UN General Assembly at Puckapunyal for the second round of the SP Tools Australian Kart Championship later this month with his regular Australians joined by a Taiwanese former pole-sitter, an American and two Kiwis.
Taiwan racer, Jie Kao returns to Australia to race in the TaG 125 category. He has been in Australia on multiple occasions through 2017 and 2018, memorably setting the pole time in the lead junior category, KA2 in drying conditions at Monarto in South Australia in 2018.
Kao has been racing Rotax DD2 in Asia and last year, represented his nation at the Rotax Max Grand Final Challenge in Bahrain.
“I’m excited to be back here in Australia and racing with Kart Class again,” Kao told Speedcafe.com. “It has been a while since I’ve been here, we set pole position before, the competition is very tough, but I will have some weeks to acclimatise and be ready to race.”
20-year-old Kao was a last minute entry to round two, so much so that he will be responsible for his own setups and mechanicing during the event on the kart formerly raced by Peter Bouzinelos.
“I’m happy to be back here, it is really good racing and I think we can go well.”
Kao reported that family were all fine after the devastating earthquake that shook his homeland just over a week ago.
His original purpose for being in Australia was to assist American-Taiwanese, Blake Hseuh – who will make his Championship debut in Cadet 9.
Hailing from San Francisco, California, Hseuh is one of the students of Sera’s online Kart Class training program.
The closest kart track to Hseuh back in California is some five hours drive from his home. He is in Australia to undertake two weeks of intensive one-to-one training, before rolling onto the Eastern Lions track.
“He is one of my online students and they have decided to come here and race,” Sera explained. “Being in Melbourne with Oakleigh and Todd Road within 20 minutes drive is like heaven for him, considering he has to travel five hours to get to the track each time over there – it’s like me driving to Wagga to go racing each weekend!”
Also in the youngest category in the event will be Australians, Oscar Ray and Jet Herring.
Joining Kao in the 68-strong TaG category will be Australian Jake Sawyer and Kiwi Championship debutante, Chris Benton. He arrives under the watchful eye of multiple New Zealand Champion, Ryan Urban. they’ll be joined by round one TaG winner, South Aussie Ben Holliday – who took the green and white kart to victory lane in TaG on home soil.
Completing the Kart Class-backed drivers will be two in KA2 – round one pole-sitter, super-fast Kiwi Maxim Kirwan (who excelled two years ago in Antarctic conditions at Puckapunyal as a Cadet) and Brad Majman, who races under the JND banner.
Sera – an 18-time Australian Champion – elected to create a niche in the training market by developing an online, video-based subscription platform, which has attracted subscribers from around the world and has led to drivers like the four internationals coming to Australia.
“The program allows us to create an online community of drivers and work with them to improve their skills – and use my knowledge from years of experience,” Sera explained to Speedcafe.com. “We’re now seeing guys like Blake coming to Australia, last year we had John John McLellan come over [from California] – he loves Australia and he may be back later this year.
“Racing in America and Asia is quite expensive as well these days, so coming to Australia to race is appealing to these guys on a number of levels. The racing here is super competitive and as drivers, they benefit from that level of competition which they can take back to their home country and apply.”
The second round of the SP Tools Australian Kart Championship will be at Puckapunyal (outside Seymour, northern Victoria) April 19-21.
