Jamaican representative Alex Powell pushed all challenges aside and energed victorious as the Panamerican Mini ROK Champion in the Panamerican Rok Cup Challenge at the Autódromo Xrp Motorpark 1, Columbia on Sunday August 19, 2018. “With this win he automatically secures a place in the Rok World Finals in Italy. There will be 170 Mini drivers participating.” says his father John Powell. “Early this year Alex won the spot for the US ROK Nationals to be held in Las Vegas in November.”
Alex had a trouble free race day, safely avoiding an accident that took out some of his competitorswhile he was leading in the Pre-Final, before driving to victory in the Final with a winning margin of over 6 seconds. Commenting on his race, the new Champion said “It was a tough race at the beginning but I was able to focus and not make any mistakes and I was able to pull away from the other drivers.”
Reporting on the overall event, John Powell said “For him to come here, learn their 1.5 klms track in 2 days and turn around and beat them convincingly is truly impressive. In the Prefinal Alex passed the 2 top Columbian drivers in one corner, everyone clapped and cheered for that pass.”
John continued “This event was one of the most challenging races he has ever done. Because of the high altitude the engine builder had to be constantly tuning the engine. Also because of the constant temperature changes the track conditions changed, so we had to be changing the setup of the kart. Lastly the weather conditions were constantly changing, one minute it’s sunny and hot, next minute it was lightly raining with sun, then heavy rain with freezing temperatures. It was extremely challenging. But my team was great and I thank them all for their hard work”.
The JMMC congratulates Alex for winning the Panamerican Championship and wish him continued success as he returns to Italy to resume his season there.
Pictured left to right with Alex are Ariel his engine builder, Mike Wilson his coach, Simone his mechanic and Luigina, Director of the Energy Kart Racing Team.
