A month ago, Ryan Norberg was denied victory at the opening round. Today, there was simply no stopping him at Ocala Gran Prix as he drove flag to flag in the Final to take home victory at the Rok Cup Florida Winter Tour.
In a wild PreFinal earlier in the day, front-runners Ryan MacDermid (BirelART) and Arthur Leist (TonyKart) came together on the opening lap, knocking them well down the running order, and while they were both able to recover a few positions, they had to start the Final a little deeper in the field than they had hoped.
As the green flag waved, everyone was chasing Norberg as he timed his launch perfect, jumping to the lead with Eduardo Barrichello following him through while Diego Ramos (Kosmic) slipped back a few positions after starting on the front row.
Barrichello pressured Norberg early, but it didn’t last too long as he would fade as the laps counted down. After such a promising start, it was a disappointing fifth-place finish that Barrichello had to settle with.
Ramos was the first to get by Barrichello, but from there, he had nothing to catch up to Norberg, cruising to finish second. Canadian Ryan MacDermid was the next to get by Barrichello. Some fast laps in the closing stages allowed him to close in on Ramos, but he wasn’t able to make a move on the final lap, taking a well-earned podium result. Finally, Leist was the final driver to get by Barrichello before the checkered.
Logan Cusson (Kosmic) finished up sixth with Nicholas Hornbostel (Kosmic) recovering from a DNF in the PreFinal to finish two spots behind his REM teammate. Finally, Trevor Pace (Intrepid) was sixteenth and Tommy Simard (Kosmic) was nineteenth.
Full results can be found here: http://bit.ly/2Exksl1.
Below, watch out Facebook Live stream of the Rok Senior Final. We apologize for Neelan’s shakey hands.
