Late last night an email arrived in our mailbox. It was something we’d been waiting weeks for. Opening it immediately, the news is exactly what we were hoping to see.
The first draft of the entry list for the upcoming ROK the RIO in Las Vegas shows 181 entries so far, giving us hope that the event will reach 200 drivers.
We’ve been looking forward to this event since it’s announcement a year ago and in talking with Garett Potter of Rok Cup USA, who stayed home from the recent Rok Cup International Final in Italy to continue preparations for Las Vegas, he is thrilled to see the list exceed 175 and now push towards 200. As many of us in the industry know, drivers love to wait until the last minute to register for a big race, so that gives us even more hope the race will exceed 200.
While we won’t go into specifics just yet on each class, we will break down the number of entries thus far in each.
Leading the way is Rok Junior with 37. We’d heard the class had reached 40 while in Italy, but it appears there have been a couple cancellations. Nonetheless, it features a great group of drivers, including some who made big impressions in Italy last week and we won’t be surprised to see the class jump back over the 40 driver mark by the time karts hit the track.
Senior Rok is also going to be a full grid of racers with 30 drivers confirmed. Mini Rok is right behind with 29 entries followed by Rok Shifter Senior with 21 and Rok Shifter Master at 16. Micro Rok has 19 entries signed up while Masters Rok currently has 15 experienced racers. For the new 100cc classes, the numbers are a little smaller than expected, with 14 combined entries between Senior and Masters.
Online registration will close on Monday, October 22. And for those last minute requests, on site registration will open Monday, October 29 at 1:00 PM and will require an additional $200.00 fee.
A look at the entrants also shows great diversity among teams and chassis brands. While we expected a larger turnout from some of the bigger race teams, only time will tell what the final entry count will be.
As for the Canadian contingent of drivers, well there is no shortage. Prime Powerteam, PSL Karting, Racing Edge Motorsports and Goodwood/Intrepid Canada all have good representation.
Stay tuned for our class-by-class previews next week on CKN!
Click here to register!
