Two of Australia’s modern day karting icons are chasing their 13th National Championship in Monarto this weekend.
Victorians David Sera and Matthew Wall will go head-to-head in the highly competitive Clubman Heavy category. Should one of them be victorious in the category, or the 125cc Leopard Light (Sera) or 125cc Leopard Heavy (Wall) categories where they are also competing, they will move to second outright on the all-time winners list in Australian karting – which is headed by John Pizarro with 15 National Championships.
Sera enters the weekend high in confidence having enjoyed success at the recent Victorian Championships in the Clubman Heavy category.
“It is an honour to be considered up there alongside the likes of John Pizarro, Peter Ward (12 titles) and Mark Winterbottom (10 titles). Mark was the only one that I saw race but they are all icons of our sport and absolute legends of the era when they won their titles,” said Sera.
“I’m just treating it like another event, for sure it would be great to get another national championship but I’m not approaching it any differently to what I would any other championship. To win 13 titles would be a huge achievement and if I was able to win both categories and move onto 14 in the one weekend it would be even better.
“There is an enormous amount of talent in the Clubman Heavy field, it’s going to be extremely tough. Not only have you got Wall-e (Matt Wall) but there’s also guys like Kip Foster from WA who is always strong at the Nationals and a number of other guys who will be very tough to beat.”
For Wall, who claimed his first Australian Championship in Gladstone at the 1997 event, this year’s title race is very open in both the Clubman and Leopard categories.
“Just because I’ve got the number one (reigning champion) on my kart in Clubman, it doesn’t mean that I’ve got any sort of advantage. It probably makes it harder when you look at it all,” said Wall.
“The Leopard Heavy class is the one that I really want to win. I’ve been trying to win it for the past three years now and with the guys who have won the last three national titles in the field beating them would be something I’d dearly love to do.
“As for the statistics, I think they will mean more to me in 15 years time when I look back at what I was able to achieve in the sport; right now I’m just focusing on trying to be as fast as I can every time I take to the circuit.”
Sera will take to the Monarto circuit for the first time today, while Wall completed his first laps of the 1040-metre circuit during practice yesterday.
A total of 227 entries have been received across nine categories for the 51st running of the Australian National Sprint Kart Championships this weekend.
This year marks 25 years since V8 Supercar star Russell Ingall won his last of four national karting championships, when he was victorious in the International Light category at the Bolivar Raceway in the 1988 event.
Practice will continue today ahead of qualifying tomorrow morning. Heat races will be contested on Friday afternoon and Saturday with the championship finals to be held on Sunday.
