Two more rounds of heat races were contested on Saturday at Ocala Gran Prix as round two of the Sofina Foods Florida Winter Tour presented by FIKSE Wheels continued in North Florida. Up front, it remained status quo for the most part with the qualifying leaders controlling most of the heat races.
Jupiter, Florida’s Kyle Kirkwood remained perfect in ROK Senior, easily disposing his competition en route to two more heat wins and the provisional pole-position for Sunday. Ryan Norberg will line up alongside Kirkwood in the PreFinal courtesy of some strong heats with Victor Frazoni, Luis Forteza and Dominic Tesoro rounding out the top-five after the heats.
Two more Florida residents controlled the ROK Shifter category. Oliver Askew scored his second heat win in the morning, before pole-sitter Austin Garrison rebounded in heat three to finally take a win. Big news came in heat three when Danny Formal was excluded in post-tech after finishing second. Formal still has a shot but will start the PreFinal from the eleventh position with Askew on the pole-position.
It looked like Michael d’Orlando was finally able to break down Mathias Ramirez in the third ROK Junior heat, but Ramirez patiently waited until the final corner of the final lap to take adverting of a slight mistake by d’Orlando to slide underneath and score his third heat win of the weekend, with d’Orlando settling for second place for the third time. Younger brother Nicholas d’Orlando will line up third on Sunday courtesy of three solid heat race results, followed by Matthew Latifi and Tyler Gonzalez.
Three drivers in Mini ROK were tied atop the heat race points chart at the end of Saturday, but thanks to his fast time in qualifying, Tyler Maxson will remain on the pole-position on Sunday. Reece Gold and Matheus Morgatto both managed a pair of heat wins and a second to match Maxson’s point total, and will line up second and third, just as they qualified, followed by Rafael Camera and Derek Carmenate, who recovered well after qualifying thirteenth.
Continuing to impress in Micro
ROK, the UK’s Oliver Denny swept his heat races on Saturday to remain on top with relative ease. Nicholas Terlecki, Brent Crews and Connor Zilisch were the best of the rest while a mechanical DNF in heat two for Jeremy Fletcher hurt his chances of battling Denny for the top spot on Sunday, forcing him to start from eleventh in the Pre-Final.
Finally, ROK Masters was dominated on Saturday by Anthony Honeywell but it will be Adam Petitt who will lead the field to green on Sunday as Honeywell scored a DNF in heat one on Friday and will start third. Daniel Gieger slots in-between the two.
Closing out the weekend on Sunday, all classes will complete a Pre-Final and Final race to determine the weekends winners.
ROK Junior led by Mathias Ramirez (Photo by: Cody Schindel / CKN)
Tyler Maxson maintained the top in Mini ROK (Photo by: Cody Schindel / CKN)
Can anyone beat Kyle Kirkwood? (Photo by: Cody Schindel / CKN)
Oliver Askew will start on pole in the ROK Shifter Pre-Final (Photo by: Cody Schindel / CKN)