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MRFKC Preview – Opening Rok Cup Canada Race Draws 81 Competitors
Motomaster Ron Fellows Karting Championship see’s full grids in Rok Junior and Rok Senior along with solid support in Mini and Shifter
On the eve of the first major race of the 2022 Canadian karting season, the pre-entry numbers for the Motomaster Ron Fellows Karting Championship at the Mosport Karting Centre have drawn a solid number of Rok Cup Canada competitors.
As of writing, there are currently 81 drivers entered in this weekend’s race spread over the four official Rok Cup Canada categories; Mini, Junior, Senior and Shifter, with the Senior grid the highest at 29, and that is awesome.
We are very excited to see these great grids hit the track at Mosport, starting Saturday morning. Racers will be competing for tickets to the Rok Cup SuperFinal, the annual gathering of the world’s best Rokkers at the famous South Garda Karting in Italy for a spectacular showdown.
Having a look at the current entry list, we don’t even know where to start, with so much potential hitting the track this weekend, but let’s start with the Rok Senior division.
Don’t forget, we have Season Photo Passes and Single-Race Photo Packages available for all drivers this weekend. Check out the CKN Store to order or email us: sales@canadiankartingnews.com.
ROK Senior – 29 Entries
As the defending champion for the last four MRFKC seasons, Patrick Woods-Toth is back for another season with Prime Powerteam and he leads a huge pack of hungry Rok Senior drivers looking to knock him off the top. Many have tried over the past four years, but nobody has been able to top his points total each year.
Just looking at the list, a least a half dozen are contenders and many more are capable of hitting the podium too. Robert Soroka (KGR/RedSpeed), Marco Filice (Prime/BirelART), Nolan Bower (NBM/Exprit), and Gianluca Savaglio (REM/Kosmic) all travelled to Italy last year for some added experience and were active at some point this winter to prepare for the season. They will be the ones to watch. The Ali brothers, Adam and Daniel, have always been smoking fast at Mosport and can’t be left out. Add in last year’s Junior champion Ayden Ingratta (AI/CRG), as well as Quebec standouts Mathieu Cousineau (REM/Kosmic) and Yuchen Ye (REM/Kosmic) and it gets really busy at the fast end of the grid.
A few drivers to keep an eye on that could surprise all of us this weekend include Austin Boyle (RTB/EOS Kart), Matthew Miles (KGR/TonyKart), Cole Hooton (Prime/BirelART) and Brady Clapham (KGR/OTK) and suddenly, the mid-pack battles this weekends could be just as exciting as the race for the lead.
For sure there is a driver or two we haven’t mentioned that will surprise us as well and that just makes us even more excited to see what happens this weekend.
Tune in to CKN this weekend to find out.
| 302 | Noah Taylor | BirelART |
| 305 | Ayden Ingratta | CRG Kart |
| 309 | Patrick Woods-Toth | BirelART |
| 312 | Mathieu Cousineau | Kosmic Kart |
| 314 | Christopher Chanko | Kosmic Kart |
| 315 | Cruz Formusa | Exprit Kart |
| 316 | Matthew Miles | TonyKart |
| 317 | Marco Filice | BirelART |
| 318 | Austin Boyle | EOS Kart |
| 319 | Tawfiq Najjar | Kosmic Kart |
| 321 | Brady Clapham | Exprit Kart |
| 322 | Cole Hooton | BirelART |
| 325 | Eric Kunz | Kosmic Kart |
| 329 | Mackenzie Milwain | Kosmic Kart |
| 331 | Yu Chen Ye | Kosmic Kart |
| 332 | Daniel Ali | Kosmic Kart |
| 333 | Lorenzo Morsillo | Exprit Kart |
| 339 | Matthew DeMarinas | BirelART |
| 347 | Santino Fossati | Exprit Kart |
| 375 | Nalin Shah | Kosmic Kart |
| 378 | Jacob Miles | TonyKart |
| 386 | Khloe Drummond | TonyKart |
| 388 | Nolan Bower | Exprit Kart |
| 391 | Eamon Lowe | CRG Kart |
| 393 | Russell Boyle | EOS Kart |
| 394 | Robert Soroka | RedSpeed |
| 395 | Avery Miller | CL Kart |
| 398 | Adam Ali | Kosmic Kart |
| 399 | Gianluca Savaglio | Kosmic Kart |
ROK Junior – 25 Entries
While the Senior Rok grid is full of drivers who have been around for a good number of years, the refreshing look of the Rok Junior grid is incredible to see. Bouncing back from a shortage of drivers in 2021, seeing 25 so far to start the season is remarkable.
With last year’s dominant drivers (Ayden Ingratta, Logan Pacza and Callum Baxter) moving on or up, the MRFKC title race is up for grabs and there’s a good number of drivers looking to step up.
Frankie Esposito (Prime/BirelART) was the only other driver to score a Rok Junior win last season and he looks ready to take control. With a full season under their belts, Joseph Launi (PowerHouse/Exprit), who snuck onto the podium last year, Caleb Campbell (Prime/BirelART), Christian Menezes (KGR/Exprit) and Ryan Maxwell (REM/Kosmic) bring their experience to the grid with hopes of victory.
Using some winter racing in the USA to get up to speed in their new category will help the likes of Anthony Martella (REM/Kosmic), Nolan Hofrichter (Prime/BirelART) and Amelia Chandler (RaceWerx/CRG) be contenders this season.
Graduates from the Mini Rok division include Mini Rok SuperFinal Champion Jensen Burnett (AI/OTK), Pearce Wade (Prime/BirelART), Mayer Deonarine (VSR/Exprit) and Savio Paniccia (PRO/CL Kart) and we could easily see one or more of these young guns find the podium this weekend.
With so many new faces in the Rok Junior division this year, we’re certain someone we haven’t mentioned will surprise us.
| 204 | Benjamin Youssef | Intrepid Kart |
| 207 | Max Raymer | Kosmic Kart |
| 208 | Nolan Hofrichter | BirelART |
| 209 | Yiannis Maragkaki | Exprit KArt |
| 211 | Anthony Martella | Kosmic Kart |
| 212 | Aiden McMillan | Exprit Kart |
| 213 | Pearce Wade | BirelART |
| 215 | Savio Paniccia | CL Kart |
| 218 | Amelia Chandler | CRG Kart |
| 219 | Sam David | TonyKart |
| 221 | Joseph Launi | Exprit Kart |
| 234 | Ryan Maxwell | Kosmic Kart |
| 238 | Jonathon Petrone | BirelART |
| 242 | Major Makovskis | CL Kart |
| 244 | Mayer Deonarine | Exprit Kart |
| 251 | Timothy Pernod | BirelART |
| 255 | Christian Menezes | Exprit Kart |
| 263 | Elias Mckenzie | TonyKart |
| 267 | Matisse Costantini | BirelART |
| 269 | Jensen Burnett | TonyKart |
| 277 | Frankie Esposito | BirelART |
| 278 | Anthony Raducanoiu | BirelART |
| 284 | Matt McCallum | Exprit Kart |
| 288 | Ayden Lanigan | CL Kart |
| 295 | Caleb Campbell | BirelART |
Rok Shifter – 13 Entries
It’s great to see the start of a revival for the Rok Shifter division and our Shifter class being back to a single make, in Ontario at least. 13 drivers is a good start and we could be in for some excitement with some fresh faces grabbing gears this weekend.
Davide Greco (BirelART) and Joshua Conquer (Energy Kart) competed down in Florida this winter with decent results and should be the class of the field, but we have a feeling regulars Jared Ramnarayan (PRO/CL Kart), Dante Lerra (BirelART), Nicholas Scarfo (PRO/CL Kart), and Ryan Monteiro (RaceWerx/CRG) will try to keep them honest.
There’s a good number of new drivers in shifter this weekend including Slavik Putiatan (Pro/CL Kart), a KZ2 driver from Ukraine who has moved to Canada for school, Adam and Daniel Ali (REM/Kosmic), who have traded in their Briggs karts for shifter karts, and Andrew Maciel (VSR/LN Kart), who has moved up from Senior Rok. We expect all four to be fast out of the box this weekend.
Hopefully, a few more drivers sign up last minute to fill in a couple more grid spots to really make it exciting this weekend.
| 504 | Ryan Monteiro | CRG Kart |
| 507 | Dante Lerra | BirelART |
| 508 | Marcello Paniccia | CL Kart |
| 513 | Victor Smialek | GP Kart |
| 515 | Davide Greco | BirelART |
| 526 | Ayden Almeida | GP Kart |
| 532 | Daniel Ali | Kosmic Kart |
| 544 | Vito Riccio | GP Kart |
| 554 | Joshua Conquer | Energy Kart |
| 555 | Nicholas Scarfo | CL Kart |
| 561 | Jared Ramnarayan | CL Kart |
| 565 | Slavik Putiatin | CL Kart |
| 577 | Andrew Maciel | LN Kart |
Mini Rok – 14 Entries
With many of the top Mini Rok drivers graduating to Junior this year, it’s time for someone new to take charge.
There is a good mix of new drivers to the category and racers with a year or two of experience, meaning just about anything could happen this season.
Jackson Pearsall (Shake n Bake/BirelART) is probably the most experienced Mini driver on the grid this weekend. Christian Papp (LN Kart) has been busy racing in Italy and the UK during the off-season and we’re excited to see how much he’s improved. Matthew Roach (Prime/BirelART)
Jackson Morley (Prime/BirelART) broke in his new Rok at all three rounds of the Rok Cup Florida Winter Tour, as did Decklin Deonarine (VSR/Exprit), while the Larusso brothers, Massimo and Nicholas (KGR/Exprit) also got some international experience this winter in Florida.
A couple of drivers we’re amped up to see on track this summer include Ryker Magro, Kaeleb Pinho, Nico Werner, Leo Da Silva and Domenico Crupi.
| 102 | Christian Papp | LN Kart |
| 108 | Marley Chaudhary | Kosmic Kart |
| 111 | Ryker Magro | BirelART |
| 116 | Matthew Roach | BirelART |
| 118 | Leo Da Silva | TonyKart |
| 121 | Kaeleb Pinho | FA Kart |
| 122 | Karson Kier | BirelART |
| 123 | Niko Werner | TonyKart |
| 124 | Decklan Deonarine | Exprit Kart |
| 129 | Jackson Pearsall | BirelART |
| 168 | Massimo Larusso | Kosmic Kart |
| 192 | Jackson Morley | BirelART |
| 198 | Domenico Crupi | TonyKart |
| 199 | Nicholas Larusso | Kosmic Kart |
With tickets to the Rok Cup SuperFinal up for grabs to the MRFKC class champions, as well as invites to ROK Vegas for second and third place in each class, it all starts this weekend to see who will add their names to the history books and become an MRFKC champion.
