At the opening round of the Rok Cup Florida Winter Tour, no less than five Canadian race teams took part, along with a number of privateers, supporting a total of 25 Canadian karters to the popular winter karting series in West Palm Beach.
With Ontario as well as the Canadian Karting Championships switching over to the Vortex Rok Cup program in 2018, it’s been a quick buy-in for many Canadians, especially given the quick disappearance of the Rotax Max Challenge program in the USA, a long time staple in the industry.
We caught up with Garett Potter, organizer of Rok Cup USA as well as the Florida Winter Tour, to get his thoughts on the Canadian contingent supporting the popular winter program.
“We are very happy with the support we are seeing from the Canadian teams large and small. We understand the commitment and costs involved to make the pull down to Florida and appreciate their dedication to the program over the years. We look forward to helping them grow their Rok program in 2018 and beyond.”
Prime Powerteam led the way with nine Canadian drivers including Rok Shifter winner Robert Wickens and Rok Senior front-runner Ryan MacDermid. Racing Edge Motorsports had three Canadians, all battling in Rok Senior for the podium. PSL Karting was the home of Thomas Nepveu in Rok Junior and Davide Greco in Rok Shifter, while their other two drivers, Marijn Kremers and Ryan Norberg, were both leaders in their respective categories. Ventresca-Sebarras Racing also had a trio of Canadians while Goodwood Kartways/Intrepid Canada had a pair of Canadians as well as a house full of international racers.
Privateer efforts included a trio from Quebec with La Maison du Roti, while AI Motorsports, Italian Motors, and Team CENA all had individual efforts.
“It’s great to see the momentum continue to build through our cold Canadian winter,” stated Goodwood Kartways Owner Daniel Di Leo.
“Aside from an enormous effort by everyone involved, the transition to Rok powered engines has been virtually seamless. Canadian kart racers have been very supportive with the introduction of our Rok Cup Canada program and to see so many Canadians down south competing in organized Rok events bodes well for the future.”
With round two taking place in Northern Florida at Ocala Gran Prix, we’re expecting to see a few more Canadian racers make the trek down south for the weekend of Florida Winter Tour action. The event hits the track in Ocala from February 16-18 and CKN will be there to cover all the action!
For more information about the Rok Cup Florida Winter Tour, head over to http://rokcupusa.com.
