Florida Winter Tour Round Two Kicks Off This Weekend in Orlando

Ding, ding, ding, round two!

The 2015 Cold Stone Creamery Florida Winter Tour presented by MaxSpeed Group resumes this weekend for the second round of their three month championship, this time in the tourist destination of Orlando, Florida.

It has been a bitter cold week so far in Orlando with temperatures near freezing for those who have been out testing. Temps are expected to rise when the racing gets underway on Saturday and Sunday, but this still isn’t quite the weather most anticipate when travelling to the sunny south.

The FWT ROK Cup will once again lead the way with the FWT Rotax Max Challenge continuing next weekend. Both platforms had solid starts to the season with great entry numbers across the board.

Jonny Edgar (143) and Nick d’Orlando (115) both scored wins in Homestead. Who will prevail this weekend in Orlando? (Photo by: Cody Schindel/CKN)

Our eyes will be on the likes on Nicholas d’Orlando (KoeneUSA/TonyKart) and Jonny Edgar (Team BENIK Kart) in the Mini-Rok division. The two split the opening rounds in Homestead where both drivers immediately posed as championship threats. The BENIK Kart team has shown excellent pace at the Orlando facility over the past two weeks, winning the local and regional events that have taken place in the category. Aside from these two there are many others hoping to knock them off the pedestal including the likes of Lachlan Defrancesco, Matthew Latifi, Jak Crawford, Reece Gold, Derek Carmenate, and Sebastian Montoya.

It was great to see a solid field of Shifter karts in Homestead and we are hoping to see that momentum carry over into Orlando. Former Formula 1 star Rubens Barrichello (Ocala Gran Prix/TonyKart) showed great pace but fell short to Czech driver Patrik Hajek (Praga) in both finals while rookie Austin Garrison made a statement in his debut in the ROK Shifter category. Unfortunately it appears that both Hajek and Canadian Zachary Claman DeMelo, who podium’d on Saturday, will be absent this weekend.

Could Rubens Barrichello be taking his selfie from the top of the podium this weekend with Hajek absent? (Photo by: Cody Schindel/CKN)

ROK Senior was dominated by Kyle Kirkwood (Ocala Grand Prix/TonyKart) last month. Fresh off his F1600 signing, will the Florida driver be able to do it again? Andre Nicastro, Christian Munoz, Morgan Healey and Gianfranco Mazzaferro were very fast and will be gunning for him.

The same can be said about ROK Junior as Mathias Ramirez (Ocala Grand Prix/TonyKart) swept the weekend with ease. Will he be able to do it again or will Luiz Branquinho, Roman DeAngelis, Nick Brueckner or David Malukas knock him off the top of the podium.

We are excited for this weekends FWT ROK Cup as the Orlando Kart Centre provides great racing from many angles. Be sure to tune into CKN this weekend for full event coverage!