ROK Cup Update
Tweet| from Tom Williamson | 12 October 2012 |
Thursday the 11th of October marked the beginning of the Rok World finals and our Aussie boys were all amped up and had never seen or experienced an atmosphere like this.
There were two practice sessions in the morning and all our drivers faired well inside the top 20. At lunch all the boys attended the compulsory drivers briefing, before gearing up for the afternoons qualifying session.
In Junior Rok all boys fitted with new tyres and a few changes to the chassis, were ready to go out and do their best.
The field was split up into three groups. In group one was group one was Cody Gillis, Andrew Kahl and Chris Sandrone and in group three was Kurt Kosteki. Each group had 15 minutes to put their best time down. In group one Gillis was 4th with a 45.021, Kahl was 5th with 45.044 and Sandrone was 9th with a 45.163. In group three Kosteki was 16th with a 45.396.
After all the groups were combined Gillis finished up in 7th with Kahl only 2 positions behind in 9th, Sandrone qualified in 23rd and Kosteki in 49th.
This was a great effort by all the boys with 73 karts in the field and the pole being taken by Ferrari Academy driver Leonardo Pulcini with a 44.795. With two of the boys looking like they can fight for a podium finish it will be unbelievably close racing with the entire field only separated by 8 tenths.
In Mini Rok young Jack Bell, who has been setting the pace for most of the week ended up 14th, surrounded by Italians with a 50.182. Pole in his class was taken by local driver Noah Watt with 49.953. Jack’s consistency bodes him well to fight for a podium with the top 15 all within 2 tenths.
Travis Millar competing in Super Rok ended up 28th with a 44.435. This is a great effort in a field of 67 who race this class year round and this being Travis’ first time competing at the Rok World Finals.
Friday will see our Aussie boys race in 4 heats in an attempt to qualify for the finals. They key to qualifying will be finishing each heat race and trying to move forward in the field.
- Results and live timing can be found on the following link - http://www.vortex-rok.com/rok_international_final/2012/index.php
