By: ROKCup.ca
Greg Moore Raceway hosted the final round of the Rok Cup Canada Championship in conjunction with the West Coast Kart Club closing out the string of big race events at the Chilliwack based race track. Neck and neck is the only way to describe this championship with PSL West’s Jordan Redlin coming in behind RaceLab’s Chris Eagles in a fight where every last point would count. By the end of Saturdays warm up it would be apparant that this battle would not ease up as the gap between Eagles, Redlin and past winners Kris Hoffbeck (FK) and Bob Wakeling (FK) were all looking strong and ready for a tight race.
In Saturday’s Qualifying it was a RaceLab front row with Hoffbeck claiming the pole with Eagles taking 2nd, Redlin’s CRG 3rd and Wakeling sitting next to him in 4th. At the start of the race there was some shuffling that saw Wakeling, Eagles, and Redlin battling for position while Hoffbeck would be out front working on his lead. Misfortune would later strike Redlin as he would retire due to an electrical issue. Once Redlin’s departure occurred things settled down up front as Eagles and Wakeling comfortably crossed the line in 2nd and 3rd postion looking good for the final. With an Electrical change to Redlin’s kart he found his pace once again in the Final and wasted no time getting into the mix with Wakeling and Eagles who he managed to make his way passed. Redlin then managed to overtake Hoffbeck for the lead and was able to retain it while the team of FK’s battled amongst themselves with Eagles taking the 2nd place spot from Hoffbeck enabling to keep the points battle close with Redlin’s advantage at 1 point going into Sunday.
Sunday morning was upon the ROKKERS and the possibility of being the World Finals representative was definitely stirring excitement throughout the paddock and rarely is a championship so close between 2 drivers. Once again in the morning the top three from Saturday’s final were within less than a tenth of a second in warm up and going into qualifying it was anyones race to be won. In qualifying it would be Kris Hoffbeck taking the pole with a time of 51.987. It would be Eagles sitting next to him on the front row while Redlin would sit 3rd alongside Wakeling. The Pre Final was kicked off with Eagles jumping into the lead and Hoffbeck following while Redlin and Wakeling battled for position allowing the top 2 a chance to get away. This paved the way for a somewhat uneventful race as Eagles set times running 3/10’s of a second ahead of the next driver and opened up a healthy lead. Hoffbeck back off once realizing the RaceLab team had put a gap on Redlin and would opt to reduce his pace and save his tires for the final and in the process allowing Wakeling to take the 2nd place spot from him.
The Final saw more of the same as the green flag dropped and Eagles ran out into the lead and the boys behind him all battled through the first few corners with Redlin getting the short end of the deal as he fell back into 5th at one point with Jason Houghton putting his CRG in front of him in the first corner. Hoffbeck sat behind Eagles aware that his team mate was in the hunt for the championship and decided to not put that at risk and sat in 2nd until Eagles had opened a comfortable gap from him. Making his way back up to the front was Redlin who nearing the end of the final started knocking on Hoffbeck’s door and the two of them began to swap positions with Redlin getting the better of Hoffbeck on the last corner of the last lap to take second as Eagles kept his lead from the green flag to the checkered flag. Eagles in only his third season of competition will be Team Canada’s representative in the Super Rok category this coming October in Lonato Italy at South Garda Raceway where he will be running with the Race Lab Racing Team.
