After his fifth placing in the Junior Rotax class at the September Blossom meeting at Roy's Hill and a third at the 2015 Blossom meeting, May has every right to eye a top-10 finish.
"All of the top drivers who are here this weekend were at the Blossom which we all used as a rehearsal for this weekend," May said.
He was referring to Auckland's Callum Hedge and Wellingtonian Rianna Omeara-Hunt who are the country's second and third ranked drivers respectively in the Junior Rotax class and national schools champion Ryan Wood of Wellington who is the hot favourite in the Junior Yamaha class.
With the likes of Ronan Murphy, the son of Kiwi motor racing legend Greg Murphy, and Zac Stichbury, the son of the late Ashley Stichbury, also Hawke's Bay club members who race in the Junior Rotax class, that high level regular club competition could result in a Bay starter featuring on the podium.
Stichbury is racing the same two classes as May who unconcerned about the workload. This morning he has two qualifying heats for the Junior Rotax class and this afternoon two qualifying heats for the Junior Yamaha class.
Tomorrow May will have two 12-lap heats in the Junior Yamaha class which will determine his grid position for the 18-lap pre-final. Final placings in this race will determine the grid draw for the winner-takes-all 28-lap final.
The same format will apply when he tackles the Junior Rotax class on Sunday. Whether or not May continues to compete at this level will be determined by his success this weekend.
"As I said I'm getting bit big for karts so I might get into racing cars next year but will still race karts at club level," May said.
Like his father and mentor Terry, May, is also a member of the Hawke's Bay Car Club. Last weekend he navigated for his father in the non-competitive touring class in the Targa Rally.
"We did it for a bit of bonding in the lead-up to this weekend. It was an incident-free weekend ... hopefully that's a good omen for this weekend," May said.
He is an advocate of the 28-lap final which was trialled at the Blossom meeting.
"I'm a novice rower this summer and the fitness I get from that will prove beneficial during the later stages of the final," May, who is also a defender for his school's colts A hockey team, said.
A big fan of Dutch Formula One driver Max Verstappen because "he does so well for a 19-year-old", May, said karting gave youngsters the ideal grounding for all forms of motorsport.
"It's a good family-orientated environment where everybody helps one another so kids have a good time."
Hawke's Bay's Tom Bewley should perform well in the 12-strong Cadet Rok class. Nick Heywood will be the Bay's sole hope in the Rotax Max Light class. Bewley's brother Harry is among the fancied starters in the 23-strong Mini Rok class. An eight-strong open class will complete the weekend's programme.
