It’s been a very interesting week at the ROK Cup SuperFinal as plenty of rain has arrived in Northern Italy and disrupted this great event.
The spirits are still high, and the competition level even higher, but there has been no shortage of wet weather since the event officially kicked off on Wednesday. And there’s more in store for Saturday, including 30mm of rain forecast in the morning hours.
For Team Canada, many arrived early in Italy and did plenty of testing under bright blue, sunny skies. When the rain came, they were forced back to step one. Learning to manage the track surface has been a challenge unlike any other as South Garda Karting is known for its high amount of rubber, making the surface ice-like when wet. We are seeing driving lines by Italians unlike we’ve ever seen before.
Qualifying on Wednesday saw a brilliant lap from Marco Fazari to place him inside the top ten, fifth in his group and ninth overall. He’s held his own in the heat races as well, scoring a pair of sixth-place finishes.
Our Junior and Senior drivers are competing against some of the most competitive fields we’ve witnessed at the SuperFinal for those divisions.
Olivier Mrak is looking to end off his Junior season strong. He Qualified 28th and charged through the field in Thursday’s only dry heat race to score the heat win with a last-lap double-pass on the leaders. After knocking on the door of the top ten in his first two heat races, Cole Medeiros had an engine failure in heat 3 that forced him to the sidelines. He will need a good recovery drive in his final two heat races.
Now a Senior, Jensen Burnett had a great heat race drive to move up 13 positions and finish P4 on Thursday morning. He admitted they missed the setup in Qualifying as heavy rain fell midway through the session, but has since been very strong on pace.
Our Experts are really being challenged this week with the conditions. Mark Pavan and Daryle Redlin have been hovering around the top ten.
Finally, Zach Taylor is flying the Canada flag in Super ROK. He’s had a pair of pushback penalties in his heats so far that have hurt his finishing results.
More to come from Italy.
