This year marked the 20th anniversary for the Rock Island Grand Prix. One of the largest karting street races in North America. The ROCK is an extremely demanding circuit, combining all of the common challenges encountered in a normal street circuit. Brick cross walks, pot holes, asphalt to concrete transitions, manhole covers, and limited vision around the corners. All of this while reaching speeds in excess of 80mph, and cornering speeds near 50mph! Needless to say, the racers get a little banged up and bruised from the abuse of the streets at these speeds.
Challenging as it is...this still proves to be a great race that drivers from all over the country enlist to compete in every year. This event attracts the sports best drivers, every year.
My weekend proved to be challenging with a new Birel chassis and the Maxter MXS engine. We had the engined tuned perfectly, but I struggled with the chassis set-up which left me slightly off pace with my lap times. I battled the best I could and finished the weekend with a 3rd place finish in the 20 lap race.
