adminCollin Matiza
Sports Editor
THE Rok Cup Zimbabwe karting championship gets back into full swing at the Sables Karting Club meeting at Donnybrook Park Raceway in Harare this coming weekend.
Rok karting is one of the most successful karting series in the world and is perfect for either the hobbyist karter or the ambitious youngster hoping to climb the motorsport ladder to greater heights.
The parent company, Vortex/OTK, are associated with the Ferrari development programme, have won over 16 world karting titles and have dozens of major championships taking place around the world.
“It’s an exciting time for junior karting in Zimbabwe,” said Kevin Dufty, the official Rok Cup promoter for Zimbabwe. “With a strong promotional effort, we have seen good growth in the local Rok classes over a relatively short time and I think we can attribute this to not only having a great product that competitors enjoy but also to the support and back-up we are able to offer them.”
Despite the world continuing in very challenging times, 2021 proved a watershed year for the Rok kart class with the readmittance into the Rok Cup Global organisation and the largest participation levels ever seen in the country.
Inclusion in Rok Cup Global brings many benefits, including a much sort after wildcard entry to the Rok Super Final held in Italy every year.
ROK Cup, is an FIA authorised international series, operating in 32 countries around the world with their premiere event taking place every year in Italy and in 2021 had over 400 drivers compete from countries across the globe.
“Much time and effort has been invested to grow the Rok classes to where they are today and its fantastic to have official recognition from Rok Cup Global,” Dufty said.
“We worked hard not only on negotiating for our re-admission into the Rok Cup Global series but also putting in the required support for our competitors. Areas such as strong mechanical support, coaching, good class progression and an exciting and attractive championship for youngsters and their parents to enjoy were key elements for the growth.”
With the much-anticipated 2022 season on the horizon, Dufty also said: “We are hoping for the most exciting season yet, but we still have much work to do to make sure the Rok classes are sustainable in Zimbabwe.
We will continue to grow the grids and our focus remains the same — to provide easy to understand stable rules and parity of performance so that our young competitors can enjoy kart racing on a level playing field.’’
Online Reporter