The Erebus Academy with Sera Driver Development (SDD) last weekend competed at the opening round of the 2020 Australian Kart Championship (AKC).

The Erebus Academy and SDD have workedalongside each other since the beginning of 2019,with the program continuing to prove its success.

After achieving plenty of positive results, Dave Sera, who leads the program, described the opening round as reassuring.

“Obviously with such a very young group of drivers, you have more varied ambitions, so this opening round was very encouraging,” Sera said.

Whilst Sera admits results are varied between the 7-12 year olds, age has definitely not impacted the success of his younger team members.

William Calleja had a standout performance over the weekend in the Cadet 9 category, not only achievingthe fastest lap in qualifying, butalso scoringthe team’s first win of the season with a 6 second lead.

“William’sonly 8 years of age which makes him one of the youngest people to have won an Australian karting championship so that’s really exciting for him.

“The other two drivers in the same category, Riley Harrison and Maxim Kirwin both had their personal best results so they’ve all done very well.”

Harrisonand Kirwinbegan their weekend alongside William battling it out for pole positionin the qualifying rounds. Maxim finished the weekend4^th, whilstRiley unfortunatelycouldn’t hold onto his 3^rdplace, resulting in a DNF.

Brad Majman, Riley Blaxell and Miley Miller also competed in the Cadet 12 class.

Majmanunfortunately got tangled up whilst in the top 10, resulting in a DNF and Riley Blaxell finished in 28^th.

Out of the three Cadet 12 drivers, Millerhad the most success, finishing11^thaftera costly DNF in the heats had her starting from 31^st.

“I truly believe that a top 5 was possible this weekend, which was a big step up from 2019,” Sera said of Miley.

“Miley just had one of those weekends where you start on the back foot and it’s hard to recover.”

Jake Sawyer from Western Australiarounded out the team, only managing P21 after an opening lap tussle ruined his run from 8^thon the grid.

Following the weekends results, Sera is feeling confident about the second round of the AKC, being held at a Victorian circuit that they were highly competitive at last year.

“Confidence is high, the kids were very competitive at the major races last yearand they’ve only gotten so much more confident since then, so there’s no reason why we can’t be fighting for podiums,” he said.

The young squad of karters now look forward to their next round in Seymour, Victoria in April.