Sera Wins Round & Takes Series Lead In Florida Winter Tour
press release
Rounds three and four of the Florida Winter Tour took place at Palm Beach International Raceway, West Palm Beach, USA on the 25th-27th February 2011. Arrow Racing Karts driver David Sera led the way in the highly competitive Rotax Senior class putting in a dominant performance against the best drivers from around the world including 2005 IZOD Indy Car Championship winner Dan Wheldon.
Sera set the 1250m Palm Beach Circuit alight in qualifying, posting the fastest time by just over a tenth of a second for Sunday’s race. ‘The kart was on rails in qualifying. I elected to wait a few minutes for the track temperature to rise, and also to get some good track position, and right from the start I had the top position’ said Sera.
In the second qualifying session, which determines the starting position for Saturday’s race, Sera just missed out on the fastest qualifying time by 0.04 of a second from current Indy Lights driver Jay Howard.
The Monster Energy driver dictated terms from the front in Saturday’s opening race, until two drivers slip streamed by the Melbournian driver at the half way point of the 15 lap race. After maintaining his position in third for a few laps, Sera got passed by Wheldon and Brazilian Victor Pedrosa to eventually finish in fifth position.
As the green flag waved for the start of Saturday’s final, Sera was pushed from behind entering turn one and spun out, dropping the current Australian Champion to 34th position at the end of lap one. With a championship on the line, Sera never once gave up carving his way through the field to finish a very creditable 5th place setting the fastest lap in the process.
“Although it was disappointing to get spun around on turn one, the kart was incredibly fast, and it leaves us with a lot of confidence heading into tomorrow’s race where we start from first. We managed to still gain some valuable points in the championship and hopefully we can challenge for more wins”.
A new day dawned on Palm Beach International Raceway with David Sera starting out of pole position for Sunday’s pre final. After making a clean start, Sera led the way exiting turn one before falling victim to the large main straight where three drivers slipstreamed their way past the Arrow driver. “We are flat out for 15 seconds on this main straight, and not one driver has been able to pull away all weekend. Drivers are gaining 5-7km/h in the slipstream, so it’s like NASCAR where you need a drafting partner!”
After settling in fourth position for a couple of laps, Sera found a way past two competitors to sit in second position at the half way mark behind Indy Lights driver Jay Howard. Pushing him around the entire circuit, Sera and Howard were able to pull a gap over the challenging competitors to stage a duel over the final lap that ended in controversy. Approaching the final hairpin, Sera made several attempts to pass a blocking Howard but couldn’t find a way past the leading driver. After the race an infringement was handed to Howard for blocking and dropped the British driver to third place, elevating Sera to the win.
Sera made a great start to lead the highly talented Rotax Senior field around for the first lap. With the chasing competitors working together down the long main straight, Sera was again demoted to third position at the start of lap two. Not wanting to get caught up in a heated battle, the Monster Energy driver worked with the leading two karts to try and gain a gap over the chasing competitors. On the fifth lap Sera was again vulnerable down the straight, losing three positions to now find himself in sixth position with plenty of work in front of him.
With a wealth of experience, Sera picked off his competitors one by one, setting up another duel with rival Jay Howard over the concluding stages. The two drivers once again worked together to gain an ascendency over their rivals, and no places were exchanged until the final lap, where Sera made a bold move in the approach to the flat out chicane entering turn two that surprised the Indy Lights driver. From then on Sera held a tight line, and maintained a small margin to greet the chequered flag first. “It was an extremely tough race where anyone of six drivers could have won the race. I was just lucky I put myself in the right position at the right time. To have the championship lead heading into the final round is great, but there are still four important races to be decided.”
This gave Sera his fifth Florida Winter Tour victory and the first of his 2011 campaign. By winning the final race, Sera also took over the championship lead heading into the final round to be held at the Ocala International Raceway on the 26th-27th March.
He would like to thank everyone at Arrow Karts, Monster Energy Drinks, Kart Sport North America, SKF Bearings, Bell Helmets and Alpinestars for their continued support. For more information about David Sera please visit www.davidsera.com