The first weekend of ROK competition at the Florida Winter Tour saw tornado warnings and heavy rain in Homestead, pushing much of Friday’s track activity to Saturday. But the wet weather didn’t affect the results of BENIK Kart drivers, who brought home several top-five and top-ten results in the Vortex Micro ROK and Mini ROK classes.
In Vortex Micro ROK, BENIK Kart drivers took the first, third and fourth positions in the weekend’s main event. Oliver Denny scored the team’s Micro ROK win. BENIK Kart driver and privateer Lucas Rodriguez started on pole for the prefinal, and came away with the fastest lap of the final while Fred Slater competed in his first race outside of Kid Karts and claimed an impressive fourth place result.
In Mini ROK, BENIK put three drivers in the top-five and six drivers in the top-eight, an impressive feat in the weekend’s largest class. Forty-one drivers competed in the class, making it the largest field of the weekend. Derek Carmenate swept all of his heats to start on pole for the prefinal. In a four-kart battle during the final, Carmenate made a pass for the lead on the last lap, securing the win for BENIK Kart. In addition to placing six karts in the top eight, a BENIK driver, Reece Gold, also scored the fastest lap of the race.
“In fields stacked deep with talent, BENIK Kart had very good results,” said Nick Mitchell, the team’s co-owner. “We’re very proud of our drivers and our winning weekend.”
In the talent-laden ROK Junior category, Lachlan DeFrancesco progressed through the heat races to claim a fourth place starting position for the weekend’s prefinal. The luck would run out there as a crash at the start of the race would ruin any chances of victory in both wheel-to-wheel sessions on Sunday.
For more information on BENIK Kart, please contact Nick Mitchell or Ben Cruttenden via e-mail to Info@Benik-Kart.com or by phone at 754.206.4870. For all West Coast Sales, please contact Nash Motorsportz at 951.233.3431, via email to nashmotorsportz@yahoo.com, or through their Facebook at www.facebook.com/pages/Nash-Motorsportz/302987366497945. Kartworkz is also an authorized BENIK Kart dealer and will be servicing the northeast region of the country. Please visit them online at www.Kartworkz.com or contact Jerry White at 570.237.1095.
BENIK Kart can also be found online at www.BENIK-Kart.com, Facebook at www.facebook.com/BenikKart and Twitter at @kartBENIK.
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