Puckapunyal is to host one of the blue-ribbon events on the Australian karting calendar this weekend.
The Rotax Karting Nationals will see 175 competitors from various parts of Australia and New Zealand set to line up on the grid across the six categories.
The three national championship categories — Rotax Light, Rotax Heavy and Junior Rotax — are the three largest fields with 45, 22 and 51 entries received.
The 45-driver Rotax Light field is the largest of the category assembled for the annual event since the 2003 running in Newcastle when 62 drivers contested the category.
Included in the list of drivers for the Rotax Light field this year is reigning champion Pierce Lehane (Sydney), six-time champion David Sera (Narre Warren), New Zealand champion Daniel Kinsman and 2011 KZ2 World Cup champion Joey Hanssen.
The championships will also be the setting for the announcement of the 2013 Australian team to contest the Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals in New Orleans in America; an event in which Australia has featured as one of the best performing countries for the past three years. Many of the 12 seats available will come down to the wire and won’t be decided until the National Championship race on Sunday.
Eastern Lions Kart Club will have several contestants at the championships — Lee Mitchener (DD2 and Rotax Heavy), Justin Ford and Braydon North (Junior Max), Travis Kodric and Dylan Collett (Rotax Heavy) and Andrew Carey, Luigi Catanese, Brenton Mountjoy, Jordan Ford, James Cornfoot, Andrew Petrou and Joey Hanssen (Rotax Light).
Racing is on Saturday and Sunday at the Hume International Raceway on SeymourTooboorac Rd.
