$60k Cash for Online Karting Series

ROK Cup USA has announced an online ROK Cup Sim Challenge that will feature all 10 of its karting classes across three events and offer almost US$60,000 in cash prizes.

Entry is capped at 24 per class, costs US$500 to enter and kicks off on April 20.

The program is a partnership between ROK Cup USA, RTD Media & Management and Torque Esports with Conrad Group Insurance Agency sponsorship.

“We have been looking at this for a few weeks now, but was important that we do it right,” explained RTD Media’s Mike Maurini.

“I was never a big fan of simulators and then I tuned into some events as the COVID-19 began to shut down motorsports across the world.

“The bigger players such as NASCAR, IndyCar, and Formula One were able to react quickly and launch leagues and series based on already established platforms and money.

“Researching online, I could find some lower grade karting programs but to do this right, with today’s technology, we needed the best.”

ROK Cup USA made connection with Torque Esports, and developers were working on a program within a few hours.

“Mike and I talk almost daily on better ways to serve the ROK family and what cool things we can do at the track to make their experience better” Garett Potter added.

“But with everything that transpired over the past three weeks, we needed a different plan. Mike had the ball rolling on a platform, we just need to plug in the ROK Cup USA branding and structure to launch.

“We made a ton of adjustments so we can make it as close to a ROK Cup USA weekend a possible and you will see more updates as the series progresses.”

Set to commence and go green on Monday, April 20th, the first series is a three-race program over a one-week span.

The entry fee for the series is $500 per entrant and the program is set to award nearly $60,000 in cash prizes.

It will offer a full complement of ROK Cup classes; ten divisions will be on the grid ranging from Micro ROK to ROK Shifter. A ROK Cup Sim Challenge series website is set to go live on April 10 and will include more details.

“We are giving away money to the top-five in the championship for each class, almost $60,000 in total” Maurini added.

“With a $500 entry fee, there is no additional cost to travel to the events, tires, fuel, pit passes or crash damage.

“We have big plans for this idea, but first we will run a three-race program and cap each class at 24 drivers. We have the tools to ensure drivers are racing in their proper age bracket as well as an online registration system that will go live at 11:00am on Monday, April 13th.

“Multiple ROK classes will compete in a four-hour block thus putting 24 hours of streaming coverage per race week. We don’t want drivers to sit in front of a computer all day so a practice, qualifying and main event for each class will be time specific and run within their four-hour block, three times a week.

“We will also have virtual drivers meeting to check players equipment and even a virtual Stewards Office.”

Additionally, each entrant will be provided with an embedded link so they can live stream the broadcast to their Facebook page. ROK Cup USA and RTD Media & Management will also host the event on their Facebook pages while the ROK Cup USA website will have a direct link on race weekend to view all the action.