2015 Florida Winter Tour Ready to Rok and Roll – Part 1

This weekend marks the debut of the new Florida Winter Tour as the MaxSpeed Group will host their first event as the new owner of the very popular winter karting championship. Hitting the track in southern Florida on the grounds of the famed Homestead-Miami Speedway, the series will feature the ROK Cup for the first time as the series continues to thrive under new ownership.

A change from years past, the Formula Kart weekend of the FWT is now the ROK Cup featuring engines all made by Vortex, from Micro-ROK all the way to ROK shifter, confirming the preference by drivers and teams to utilize one engine manufacturer. Well over 100 drivers will be on track in what is priming up to be an exciting kick off to the 2015 season by the MaxSpeed Group. The winter tour has been known to draw exciting grids and drivers from all over the world and different racing disciplines. There will be no shortage of star power this weekend, with as couple of Formula 1 drivers showing interest in competing.

In the first of our two-part preview we take a look at the Senior level classes on track this week end. Our Junior class preview will follow on Friday morning. CKN will be trackside for the entire Florida Winter Tour providing our excellent event coverage, photo galleries and much more.

VORTEX ROK SHIFTER
Shifter kart racing appears to be back in the eastern portion of the USA courtesy of the ROK shifter package. This weekends class is jammed full of talent with the likes of Felipe Massa and Felipe Nasr, both formula 1 drivers from Team Williams lined up to compete. Brazilian legend Rubens Barichello is also entered to race amongst the karting superstars such as Patrick Hajek and AJ Meyers as is Formula E racer Nelson Piquet Jr.

Canadian Formula 3 driver Nicholas Latifi is set to make his return to kart racing for the weekend as he joins his brother in the Ferrolati Corse tent for a one off event.

Also making their season debuts this weekend will be Canadian Dominic Legrand along with Americans Trenton Estep, Austin Garrison and Colin Daley Jr. The class should exceed 15 total drivers this weekend and if combined with the Masters Shifter class, we will see a full grid for the standing start monsters.

VORTEX ROK SENIOR
These is an abundance on young talent competing this weekend in the ROK Senior class. Leading our contenders list is Kyle Kirkwood, Andrick Zeen, Morgan Healey and Ryan Norberg.

Making their senior debut this weekend will be Canadian Gianfranco Mazzaferro and American Christian Munoz. Both drivers were standout in the junior categories last season and it will be exciting to see how they fare in the next step up.

Gianfranco Mazzaferro will be making his senior debut in the Senior Rok category this weekend. (Photo by: Cody Schindel/CKN) 

VORTEX ROK MASTERS SHIFTER

In addition to the ROK Shifter it appears there will be ten or more Masters shifter racers this weekend, including the likes of Vicki Brian and Jason Alden.

Two Canadians are going to be competing in the Rok Masters Shifter Category as Michel Legrand and Martin Janson will see Rok Competition for the first time as they head down to Florida to enjoy another winter of racing.

VORTEX ROK MASTERS

There are no Canadians on the entry list for ROK Masters. Salvador Bortoni and Adam Pettit will be the drivers to look for come race time.