2018 Florida Winter Tour – RD2 – Ocala Gran Prix – Sunday

ROKKERS returned to the always-hospitable Ocala Gran Prix (OGP) facility for the final day of round two action of the ROK Cup Promotions 2018 Florida Winter Tour. With an increase in championship points available, drivers needed to put everything on the line to either keep their championship hopes alive or move up in the rankings. Sunday saw the prefinals and finals, which will set up the championship picture for the final round in Orlando in March. Micro ROK On the strength of his two heat race wins on Saturday, Caleb Gafrarar would take his sixth place starting position in the prefinal and turn it into a victory ahead of Danny Dyszelski and Luis Alejandro Umana. Mini ROK Jeremy Fletcher turned his prefinal pole position into a victory early on Sunday to claim the inside front row starting spot for the main event while Carson Morgan and James Egozi would round out the top-three. In the final, Egozi would emerge as the victor as the wheel-to-wheel battles would heat up. Nikita Johnson would gain five positions in the main event to end his weekend in second with Kai Sorenson, Paul Bocuse and Diego LaRoque rounding out the top-five. Vinicius Tessaro would have the drive of the day as he advanced forward 28 positions to finish inside the top-ten. ROK Junior Matheus Morgatto’s only falter on the weekend was in the first heat race where he crossed the line in the second position. From that point forward, he stole the show by claiming two heat race wins, the prefinal win and main event victory for AM Engines and Parolin. Arias Deukmedjian overcame a 12th place qualifying position on Friday to stand on the second step of the podium on Sunday with Ugo Ugochukwu scoring his second podium result in as many races. Jace Denmark-Gessel and Connor Zilisch would round out the top-five when the final checkered flag flew on Sunday. ROK Senior Birel driver Ryan Norberg would almost match junior driver Morgatto’s results by claiming two heat race wins as well as the prefinal and final victories. Outdueling Diego Ramos and Ryan MacDermid, the trio was the class of the ROK Senior field throughout the weekend. Dustin Stross and Victor Schoma would end their prefinals in fourth and fifth but were unable to hold back the likes of Arthur Leist and Eduardo Barrichello, who replaced them in the running order at the end of the main event. ROK Masters Orsolon Racing’s Magno Gaia would be the man to beat on Sunday claiming both the prefinal win before dominating the main event. Polesitter Gabriel Iemma would finish second in the prefinal before fading to fourth in the final, opening the door for Danny Robertson to claim the second step on the podium. Michael Auriemma ended his result-filled weekend with some hardware in third while Francisco Marques trended upwards throughout the event to finish fifth. ROK Shifter Senior Austin Garrison would start the prefinal from the first position while AJ Myers would be a major threat in fourth, but both of their races ended early. Mathias Ramirez pounced on the opportunity to claim the prefinal win ahead of Jimmy Cabrera and Rory Van De Steur. Ramirez retained the top position for the main event until a penalty post race relegated him to the third position. Canadian driver Antonio Serravalle would take the victory while AJ Myers passed twenty karts to come home second. Ramirez was classified in P3, just ahead of Marjin Kremers and Van Der Steur. ROK Shifter Masters Anders Hoffman picked up where he left off on Saturday, as he would find himself at the pointy end of the field. Finishing the prefinal in the second position, he made good on his speed to top the blocks at the end of the final. Prefinal victor Farshad Bagheri ended his day in second, a scant two tenths ahead of Michel Legrand while Peter Licciardi and Vicki Brian rounded out the top-five. *Results unofficial