ROK Cup Superfinal 2026: Thursday Report
Isambard and Westbrook land heat race wins at South Garda Karting
Alan Isambard won his second heat of the event in Senior ROK (Photo: Cody Schindel - CKN)
The ROK Cup Superfinal is the year-end event for drivers from around the world in the ROK category, meeting at the historic South Garda Karting facility in Lonato, Italy over October 13-17. More than 400 drivers from over 35 different countries are set to compete in the 10 categories.
Drivers from the United States have gained success over the event that has been running since the mid-2000s. Drivers to win includes Derek Wang (Expert Plus – 2024), Ariel Castro (Expert Plus – 2023), Vivek Kanthan (Mini ROK – 2022), Renato Jader David (Expert – 2022/2020), Alex Powell (Mini ROK – 2019), and current NASCAR driver Connor Zilisch (Mini ROK – 2017). Canada has seen its share of success, including victories by Jayden Francisco (Mini ROK U10) last year and Jensen Burnett (Mini ROK – 2021).
The ROK Cup Superfinal 2026 begins on October 13 with four rounds of practice for all 10 classes. Wednesday features one official practice, followed by qualifying and the opening round of heat races. Heat races continue Thursday and Friday before grids are set for the Prefinals Sunday morning. The main events will then be held on Sunday afternoon.
EKN will have recaps for each USA and Canada driver, who are part of the more than 60 drivers representing ROK Cup USA, each day to allow viewers to follow their progress at the ROK Cup Superfinal 2026. Below are results from Thursday action.
VLR ROK:
#960 – Roman Doria (CAN)
Qualifying: 1st – 51.443 +0.094
Warm Up: 5th – 52.575 +0.385
Heat 2: 9th +9.104 – 52.222
Heat 3: 12th +6.694 – 52.201 (Penalty)
#958 – Dante Rodriguez (USA)
Qualifying: 18th – 52.403 +0.960
Warm Up: 11th – 52.997 +0.807
Heat 2: 12th +10.327 – 52.621
Heat 3: 8th +4.439 – 52.361
#951 – Enzo Vidmontiene (USA)
Qualifying: 9th – 51.953 +0.510
Warm Up: 8th – 52.752 +0.562
Heat 2: 5th +2.489 – 51.981
Heat 3: 11th +5.622 – 52.074 (Penalty)
VLR Junior ROK:
#908 – Roy Chang (CAN)
Qualifying: 9th – 53.190 +0.462
Warm Up: 14th – 53.686 +0.967
Heat 2: 6th +5.821 – 54.429
Heat 3: 12th +10.125 – 53.704
#903 – Thomas Du (CAN)
Qualifying: 12th – 53.453 +0.725
Warm Up: 18th – 54.234 +1.515
Heat 2: 11th +7.561 – 54.339
Heat 3: 17th +12.551 – 53.585
#902 – Lawrence Peremen (USA)
Qualifying: 14th – 53.757 +1.029
Warm Up: 2nd – 53.004 +0.285
Heat 2: 4th +4.291 – 53.671
Heat 3: 4th +3.001 – 52.712
#909 – Colton Schniegenberg (USA)
Qualifying: 6th – 53.116 +0.388
Warm Up: 9th – 53.233 +0.514
Heat 2: 2nd +0.003 – 53.616
Heat 3: 3rd +2.900 – 52.904
Expert ROK:
#721 – Kevin Ye (CAN)
Qualifying: 12th – 49.488 +0.936
Warm Up: 13th – 51.223 +1.170
Heat 2: 16th +14.414 – 49.797
Heat 3: 13th +14.804 – 49.786
Mini ROK U10:
#38 – Brody Brown (USA)
Qualifying (Overall): 20th
Heat Race Group D
Warm Up (Group 2): 7th – 56.637 +0.454
Heat AvsD: 7th +1.458 – 57.040
#28 – Dan Duculescu (USA)
Qualifying (Overall): 14th
Heat Race Group B
Warm Up (Group 2): 19th – 57.277 +1.094
Heat BvsC: 17th +11.231 – 56.716
#51 – Jayden Francisco (CAN)
Qualifying (Overall): 2nd
Heat Race Group B
Warm Up (Group 2): 1st – 56.183 +0.020
Heat BvsC: 22nd +5Laps – 1:03.102
#48 – Zev Godschalk (USA)
Qualifying (Overall): 9th
Heat Race Group A
Warm Up (Group 1): 8th – 56.622 +0.421
Heat AvsD: 2nd +0.167 – 56.718
#18 – Jack Kotowski (USA)
Qualifying (Overall): 7th
Heat Race Group C
Warm Up (Group 1): 1st – 56.201 +0.172
Heat BvsC: 7th +2.928 – 56.533 (Penalty)
#44 – Bret ‘Dutch’ Westbrook (USA)
Qualifying (Overall): 1st
Heat Race Group A
Warm Up (Group 1): 2nd – 56.373 +0.172
Heat AvsD: 1st +0.167 – 56.718
Mini ROK:
#138 – Luke Bulpitt (CAN)
Qualifying (Overall): 37th
Heat Race Group A
Warm Up (Group 2): 16th – 55.894 +0.653
Heat AvsD: 21st +9.779 – 55.550
#110 – Lucas Tarango (USA)
Qualifying (Overall): 13th
Heat Race Group A
Warm Up (Group 2): 15th – 55.782 +0.541
Heat AvsD: 12th +3.674 – 55.598
Junior ROK:
#232 – Josh Bergman (USA)
Qualifying (Overall): 27th
Heat Race Group B
Warm Up (Group 1): 5th – 50.292 +0.068
Heat AvsB: 8th +7.116 – 50.203
#250 – Cason Hodge (USA)
Qualifying (Overall): 21st
Heat Race Group A
Warm Up (Group 1): 3rd – 50.270 +0.046
Heat AvsE: DSQ
Heat AvsB: 11th +8.021 – 50.116
#209 – Nicholas Kotowski (USA)
Qualifying (Overall): 10th
Heat Race Group E
Warm Up (Group 2): 19th – 50.742 +0.542
Heat AvsE: 5th +3.426 – 49.897
Heat DvsE: 3rd +3.042 – 50.191
#233 – Robert Tronchi (CAN)
Qualifying (Overall): 15th
Heat Race Group E
Warm Up (Group 1): 28th – 52.152 +1.928
Heat AvsE: 8th +5.888 – 49.827
Heat DvsE: 11th +7.776 – 50.365
Super ROK:
#627 – Blake Nash (USA)
Qualifying: 8th – 47.448 +0.295
Warm Up: 3rd – 47.796 +0.075
Heat 2: 2nd +3.121 – 47.977
Senior ROK:
#404 – Stephen Eisert (USA)
Qualifying (Overall): 33rd
Heat Race Group C
Warm Up (Group 2): 17th – 48.842 +0.664
Heat CvsD: 9th +4.461 – 48.406
#462 – Alan Isambard (USA)
Qualifying (Overall): 3rd
Heat Race Group C
Warm Up (Group 2): 7th – 48.436 +0.258
Heat CvsD: 1st +0.127 – 48.192
Shifter ROK:
#814 – Dominik Karai (USA)
Qualifying: 10th – 47.154 +0.864
Warm Up: 9th – 47.873 +0.739
Heat 2: 5th +3.454 – 47.312
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