The ROK Cup Italy has celebrated the second half of the championship at the Cremona Circuit with the fifth out of its eight seasonal rounds. Once again, numerous drivers went to the track in the six categories of the weekend, offering great entertainment on a Sunday featured by summery temperatures.

Mini ROK

The positive trend continues in the Mini ROK category, with as many as 50 very young drivers ready to challenge for victory.
Achille Rea starts the weekend in Cremona on the right foot, signing his second pole position of the season thanks to a time of 54.805 recorded in Group 2. The fastest in Group 1 is Blazej Kostrzewa, who sees his first position disappear by just 17 thousandths and therefore has to be content with the second place in the combined rankings. Third place is the prerogative of Giuseppe Noviello, who precedes Alessandro Nanni, fourth, Huifei Xie, fifth, Augustin Feligioni, sixth, Lorenzo Zucchetto, seventh, and Luca Muzzolon, eighth. Vincenzo Salierno and Daniel Hakkinen close the top-10. Winner of the previous championship stage in Lonato is David Moscardi who finishes 11th, followed by Mikolaj Gawlikowski, Andrea Carbone, Odin Flora, Francesco Lisignoli, Elias Boullier, Oleksandr Shylo, Greta Galliani, Santino Sapia, Shae Shield, Leonardo De Grandi, Marco Verde, Victor Gorun, Antonio Ianni, Tommaso Pomoni, Mattia Finadri, Alessandro Cereda, Edoardo Traina, Stanislaw Grabowski, Camilla Amarotti, Pricop Basescu, Momcilo Davoust, Leonardo Trombini, Nicolaj Pietras, Valentino Vivian, Leo Kralev, Nicholas Bertolani, Romeo Stanislav Stefanov, Jan Gardzielik, Emma Boschetto, Johannes Buchhammer, Farel Dugat Beretta, Giovanni Aringhieri, Rudy Koka, Vasco De Vito, Andrea Croce Screpis, Federico Schiavi, Antonio Martin, Herman Bilushenko and Siavosh Derakhshan.

The qualifying heats confirm the competitiveness of Rea, who maintains the reins of the intermediate classification with a second place in his first heat and a victory in the second. Nanni obtained the same results, thus moving up to second place overall. Gawlikowski and Moscardi recover several positions, third and fourth respectively. Kostrzewa is also able to win a qualifying heat, but ends his other heat in eighth place and drops back to fifth in the intermediate ranking. Zucchetto follows in sixth, Salierno in seventh, Feligioni in eighth, Gorun in ninth, Xie in tenth and Hakkinen in 11^th. They are both slowed down by a penalty in one of their heats and lose some ground compared to the qualifying session Muzzolon, 12th, and Noviello, 16th.

Rea is again the leader in the final, jumping well from the first box and overtaking Gawlikowski behind him, followed in turn by Kostrzewa and Nanni, who are immediately engaged in a tight duel. During the second lap, after attempting to overtake the leader but failing to do so, Gawlikowski is able to respond to Nanni's attack and to go straight towards Rea's bumper, this time followed by Gorun and Moscardi, who have already made a comeback after losing a couple of positions on the first lap. While the challenge for the third position is becoming increasingly lively, Gawlikowski waits a few laps before overtaking Rea on lap five, forcing him to defend himself even from Nanni, who has meanwhile moved up to third place. A slight collision between the two Italians starts a further tussle in the group at the top and it is Nanni, who goes the track, and Kostrzewa, who loses several positions. On the other hand, Moscardi takes advantage of this and moves up to third place to close in on the new leading trio, still behind Gawlikowski and Rea. When Rea goes on attack on the eighth and penultimate lap to retake the reins of the race, Moscardi soon overtakes Gawlikowski, who also suffers an attack from Xie and finds himself fourth. Xie, author of a great comeback from tenth on the grid, even overtakes Moscardi, but the Italian replies a few moments later and thus claims the second place. A sprint finish sees Rea triumphing ahead of Moscardi by just 50 thousandths of a second, but the poleman receives a ten-second penalty for his unfair behaviour towards Moscardi and drops to 24th place. So, Moscardi inherits the victory, after the one gained in Lonato, while Xie and Gawlikowksi take the other two steps of the podium, preceding Gorun, fourth, Feligioni, fifth, Muzzolon, sixth, and Davoust, seventh thanks to an excellent comeback of 15 positions. Boullier, Noviello and Hakkinen complete the top-10 list.

Junior ROK

Important numbers and exciting races also in the Junior ROK class, which sees no less than 47 drivers at the starting grid.

Sunday opens in with Valerio Viapiana, who prints a 48.888 in Group 2 and takes the pole position overall. Turning out to be the strongest driver in Group 1 is Sofia Povazhnaia, able to stop the time less than a tenth behind Viapiana, a performance that allows her to take second place in the combined ranking on her first race of the season. Also approaching Viapiana's chrono time is Nojus Stasionis, third place, at his first attendance of the season too, as well as his two teammates Filippo Pola and Riccardo Brangero, fourth and fifth respectively. Zackarias Ringstrom takes sixth place, followed by Federico Sbardellati, winner of the previous championship stage at Lonato and seventh in the Cremona qualifying session, Ioan Tudor Jercan, eighth, Julia Angelard, ninth, and Lyuboslav Ruykov, tenth.

The list continues with Guido Bruno Bidoli, Anh Tu Ranghetti, Nicolò Carrara, Faidon Papafilippou, Emilio Tedesco, Ilias Mitaki, Francesco Koci, Franciszek Bal, Andrea Proverbio, Victoria Farfus, Iven Ammann, Ettore Sanesi, Mateusz Wal, Mia Cindy Oger, Giulio Mazzolini, Enrico Pietro Villa, Riccardo Repetto, Michal Czyzewicz, Natan Rybczynski, Liam Secall, Leonardo Monzani, Christian Romeo, Dmitrii Skorodelov, Leonardo Lanza, Selina Baum, Alberto Masotto, Andrea Thej, Francesca Pietrini, Carlo Pongratz, Marlon Di Salvo, Plamen Teliyski, Lena Pichler, Ettore Di Domenico, David Ostapenko, Tomasz Cichoracki, Valerio Santini and Gianluca Vizzoni.

Viapiana's performance in the qualifying heats was perfect, with two victories confirming him at the top of the intermediate ranking. Brangero also gains a victory, who adds a third place to his score to climb to the second place overall. Recovering several positions from the qualifying heats are Ruykov, third, Mitaki, fourth, Carrara, fifth, Bidoli, sixth, and Farfus, seventh, while Ringstrom in eighth position, loses some ground. Despite some encouraging results, Stasionis, 13th, Pola, 22nd, Sbardellati, 25th, Povazhnaia, 26th, Jercan, 27th, and Angelard, 31st, are slowed down by a few hitches. Ranghetti and Mazzolini, ninth and tenth respectively, set themselves into the top-10.

The final is featured by a sudden change: after making a great start from the pole and then immediately distancing himself from his direct pursuers, Viapiana is forced to stop on lap 11 when he has a gap of more than half of a second over his closest pursuer. Having slipped to second position when the lights go off, Ruykov suffers the attacks from Carrara and Farfus, but goes back to third place by the end of the first lap. Ruykov also quickly gets close to Carrara and overtakes him on lap five, launching himself in the chase of Viapiana before seeing his way clear by the leader's stop. In the meantime, Carrara is engaged in a tight duel with Brangero and, as a consequence of overtakings and counter-overtakings, it is the latter who gets the better of him. Ruykov therefore wins, ahead of Brangero and Carrara, who cross the finishing line more than three seconds behind the Bulgarian driver. Ranghetti also joins the fight for the podium in the final stages of the race, finishing fourth, ahead of Tedesco, fifth, Farfus, sixth, Mazzolini, seventh, and Koci, eighth. Mitaki is relegated from eighth to ninth place due to a three-second penalty for the incorrect position of the front spoiler. Bidoli, 12th, loses a top-10 place for the same reason, while Stasionis climbs to 10th.

Senior ROK

The Senior ROK category, as always the leader of the weekend at Cremona, is challenged and attended by a large number of entries.

Andrea Giudice emerges in Group 2 with a 48.206, signing his third pole position of the season. The best performer in Group 1 is Riccardo Chiodo, who takes second place in the combined standings. He is followed by his teammates Mattia Jentile, third, and Danny Carenini, winner of the previous championship stage at Lonato and fourth position in the Cremona qualifying session. Charles Alexander Troxler takes the fifth place, finishing ahead of Gianmarco Cortopassi, sixth, Lorenzo Bedetti, seventh, Riccardo Salemi, eighth, Kacper Turoboyski, ninth, and Luca Perelli, tenth. Next positions are run by Giuseppe Gaglianò, Alessandro Giarratano, Mattia D'Erme, Samuele Di Filippo, Ghazi Motlekar, Kaloyan Varbitzaliev, Ayse Cebi, Franciszek Lassota, Piotr Protasiewicz, Franciszek Czapla, Alexander Panaev, Alex Laghezza, Giovanni Polato, Andrea Fiocco, Alessandro Cocchi, Alberto Bernardi, Nicola Marini, Daniele Guenzi, Davide Torrentelli, Federico Zanetti, Pietro Camerlengo, Emanuele Romanelli, Rikardo Bakaj, Daniele Galbiati, Fabio Silvestri, Andrea Saporiti, Dominik Beller and Davide Pretosi.

The qualifying heats again show Giudice's great performance, who remains at the top of the intermediate ranking with a second place in his first heat and a victory in the second one. Same results for Carenini, who thus grabs the second place overall. Jentile is the only other driver claiming a success in the qualifying heats, maintaining his third position in the standings with a third place in his other heat. Salemi, fourth, Gaglianò, fifth, Bedetti, sixth, and Turoboyski, seventh, are also at the top of the ranking. Di Filippo, eighth place, and Varbitzaliev, ninth, recover some ground than the qualifying heats for gaining the last positions available in the top-10, while Perelli is confirmed to be in tenth. On the other hand, Troxler, 15^th, loses several positions than the qualifying session, as does Riccardo Chiodo, 23rd, and Gianmarco Cortopassi, 27th, both delayed by a stop.

Giudice performs once more with full strength in the final, starting impeccably from the first box and immediately gaining a good gap over his direct rivals. Carenini is a runner for the role of Giudice's main rival. Carenini loses a position at the start in favour of Jentile, but at the end of the first lap soon regains it, once again taking the second place. Carenini is not able to not keep up with Giudice's rhythm and has instead to manage the battle with Jentile, Salemi and Gaglianò, who follow close behind. Gaglianò opens the tussle when he overtakes Salemi on lap 11 and the latter is then attacked by Varbitzaliev, Protasiewicz and Turoboyski. On lap 13 it is Jentile's turn to break the tie in the challenge for the second position with an overtaking move on Carenini, who is also first overtaken by Gaglianò, able in getting the best of the situation, and then by Varbitzaliev, too. All this does not worry Giudice, who triumphs undisturbed, while Jentile, second, Gaglianò, third, Varbitzaliev, fourth, and Carenini, fifth, cross the chequered flag more than three and a half seconds behind the winner. Completing the top-10 were Protasiewicz, sixth, Salemi, seventh, Motlekar, eighth, Czapla, ninth, and Perelli, tenth. Di Filippo and Bedetti, on the other hand, are forced to stop while competing for a place in the top-10.

Expert ROK

Once again, two different drivers share the victories in the Expert ROK, the category reserved to the most experienced drivers of the ROK Cup Italy.

Filippo Repetto performs at his best in the qualifyings, with a time of 49.346 that earns him the pole position. The Italian driver manages to make the difference and beats by more than three tenths his fellow citizen Alessandro Viganò, second in the qualifyings and already winner of Race 2 in the previous championship round at Lonato. The other winner in Lonato, Andrea Sorbello, takes again the top-ranking positions with the third best time. The championship leader gives just 15 thousandths to Paolo Baselli, fourth, and just over two tenths to both Michele Zampieri, fifth, and Adrian Marcinkiewicz, sixth. Completing the top-10 are Tino Donadei, seventh, Marco Beretta, eighth, Riccardo Pedrola, ninth, and Marco Nannavecchia, tenth. Gianluca Pietro Rubiolini and Luca Davì follow.

In Race 1, Repetto keeps the lead thanks to a good start from the first row, but it is Sorbello who finishes the first lap ahead of everyone. After having run closed to the poleman at the traffic lights off, Sorbello overtakes Repetto at the last bend of the first lap forcing him to fight against Viganò. The latter soon launches his attack on the second lap, a move that allows him to move up to second place. The duel between Viganò and Repetto favours the run of Sorbello, who gains eight tenths over his direct pursuers, while behind the first three drivers are Baselli, Zampieri and Marcinkiewicz. The first driver closing the gap on Sorbello is Viganò, who, on lap four, is able to run three tenths far from the leader. On the seventh lap, also Repetto gets closer, completing a trio enclosed within just half a second. On the following lap Repetto soon overtakes Viganò who tries to fight and seems able to keep the first position. There is a twist on lap 14 and the third-last lap, when Sorbello makes a slight mistake in the first sector and Repetto takes advantage of it to move back to the first position. Repetto thus flies to victory, while Sorbello fights against Viganò's attacks to finish second, just ahead of his compatriot. They are followed by Baselli, fourth and able to approach the leading trio in the final laps, Marcinkiewicz, fifth, Zampieri, sixth, and Pedrola, seventh. Beretta is relegated from seventh to eighth place due to a three-second penalty for his front spoiler in the wrong position. Davì and Rubiolini complete the top-10, while Nannavecchia and Donadei are forced to retire.

In Race 2, thanks to the inversion in the starting grid of the first eight classified in Race 1, it is Beretta who starts from the first row and maintains the leadership, followed at the end of the first lap by Pedrola, Zampieri, Marcinkiewicz, Viganò, Repetto, Baselli and Sorbello. The tussle quickly becomes excited in the chasing group of drivers and, between overtakings and counter-overtakings, the cleverest is Sorbello, who climbs to fifth position during the fourth lap. On the same passage, after two unsuccessful attempts in the previous laps, Zampieri overtakes Pedrola to gain the second place and launch himself in chase of Beretta, who has meanwhile pulled away. Marcinkiewicz tries to emulate Zampieri on the next lap, but his overtaking on Pedrola results in a collision between the two, who lose ground. Sorbello takes advantage of this, moving into third place, closely followed by Viganò and Repetto. After quickly reducing the gap with Beretta, Zampieri overtakes his fellow citizen on lap seven and takes the reins of the race. At the start of the following passage, Beretta lets his teammate Sorbello, already behind him, run ahead, to be then attacked by Viganò and Marcinkiewicz, Repetto and Baselli. Sorbello tries to threaten Zampieri's first position in the final stages of the race, but the latter withstands the pressure and wins, crossing the finish line just a tenth ahead of Sorbello, who doubles his second place of Race 1 and keeps his championship lead. Viganò finishes third under the chequered flag, but is relegated to fourth place by a three-second penalty for a breaking in the starting procedure. Repetto thus inherits the lowest step of the podium, while Marcinkiewicz, penalised by three seconds for a collision with Pedrola, also loses a place compared to that obtained at the finishing line. The Polish driver finishes sixth, behind Baselli, fifth, and ahead of Beretta, seventh. Pedrola, Nannavecchia and Davì close out the top-10, while Donadei is forced into another stop.

Super ROK

In the Super ROK category, too, the best performing single-gear category of the ROK Cup Italy, the Cremona grid is full.

It's another great qualifying performance for Alex Desario. The winner of Race 1 in the previous round of the championship at Lonato wins his third consecutive pole position thanks to a time of 47.656 and is just a bit more of a tenth ahead of Lynn Neuhaus, second. He stops just three thousandths from the Swiss driver Zachary Taylor, who thus takes the third place. Also less than two tenths from the pole is Alessandro Cocozza, fourth, followed by Riccardo Martinello, fifth, Gaia Cardinali, sixth, Matteo Berruti, seventh, and Aleksandar Bogunovic, eighth. Brando Pozzi and Christian Canonica, ninth and tenth respectively, also find a place in the top-10. Completing the ranking are Alessandro Zini, Nicolò Coppotelli, Thomas Carnovali, Sachel Rotge, Matilde Seregni, Vittorio Maria Russo, Kiana Naudé, Mattia Gafforelli, Lorenzo Poletti, Christian Giovanni Signoretta, Riccardo Cocozza and Manuel Giovanni Gritti.

In Race 1, Desario continues to show off his speed as soon as the lights are off, jumping exemplary from the pole and immediately setting a better pace than his rivals’. Neuhaus' sprint is also remarkable, able to take the second place, while Alessandro Cocozza, in third, immediately gains a position. Pozzi is even able to gain five positions thanks to a lightning-fast start, finding himself ahead of Taylor. If Desario's first position is never questioned, the challenge for the place of honour between Neuhaus and Cocozza is decidedly tighter, but the top positions are frozen until the chequered flag. Desario wins, crossing the finish line with a lead of over five seconds over Neuhaus, able to beat Cocozza by just one tenth. Pozzi settles for fourth place, followed by Taylor, fifth, Berruti, sixth, Bogunovic, seventh, and Canonica, eighth. Coppotelli and Martinello close the top-10.

In Race 2, Canonica is ready for the appointment with the first position and holds it after the start. His first pursuers are Bogunovic, Berruti, Pozzi, Neuhaus, Alessandro Cocozza, Martinello, Taylor and Desario. On the second lap, Berruti tries to launch an attack on Bogunovic but fails and a few corners later Pozzi takes advantage of this to overtake his compatriot and move into third place. There is another twist on the same lap: Cocozza's attempt to overtake Neuhaus results in a collision between the two, forcing them to stop. Desario, running already ahead of Taylor, also attacks Martinello on lap three and launches himself in the fight for the fourth place with Berruti. Winner of race 1 has the best over his fellow citizen on lap nine and runs towards Pozzi, who has meanwhile pulled away from the first two. Canonica, on the other hand, runs towards the victory after withstanding Bogunovic's pressure in the early stages of the race. The Swiss driver crosses the finish line more than a second ahead of Bogunovic, while Desario beats Pozzi’s resistance of two laps to go and finishes third under the chequered flag. However, the poleman receives a three-second penalty for his move against Pozzi and is sent to ninth place. Pozzi thus inherites the lowest step of the podium, finding himself ahead of Berruti, fourth, Martinello, fifth, and Taylor, sixth. Completing the top-10 are Coppotelli, seventh, Zini, eighth, and Cardinali, tenth.

Shifter ROK

The Shifter ROK class, reserved for gearbox karts, opens the second part of the championship with two exciting races.

Samuele Leopardi reaffirms his starring role and doubles the pole position obtained in the previous championship round at Lonato. After also winning Race 1 in the last round, the Italian driver scores a 47.367 and beats Massimiliano Pezzucchi, second, by just over a tenth and a half. Riccardo Rigodanza and Fabrizio Morardo, third and fourth respectively, finish less than two tenths from the pole. Marco Chiarello gains the fifth position, just ahead of Federico Squaranti, sixth, and Andrea Zemin, seventh. Marco Acquarella, Boris Cutaia and Pietro Fioravanti close the top-10. The ranking is then completed by Adrian Labuda, Philippe Ehrensberger, Daniele Demartis, Giacomo Pellegrini, Leonardo Saba, Luigi Del Vecchio, Edoardo Sabatino, Giacomo Ferrando Pegazzano, Francesco Buffa, Cristian Lovi, Alessandro Tagliacollo and Lorenzo Rubes.

In Race 1, Leopardi brilliantly faces the start from the first row and keeps running at the top. Federico Squaranti, who finished second at the end of the first lap, is also the author of an exceptional jump from sixth place. After passing well when the lights went out, Pezzucchi suffers an attack from Squaranti himself and is also overtaken by Morardo and Acquarella, thus slipping to fifth place and finding himself just ahead of Rigodanza and Zemin. The initial tussle helped Leopardi, who already has more than a second's lead over his pursuers at the end of the first lap. In the following laps, Squaranti tries another qualifying success to close the gap on the leader and manages to gain some ground in some stages of the race. However, Leopardi proves to be impeccable in his handling of the race and triumphs, while Squaranti must be content with the place of honour and crosses the finish line just three tenths behind his compatriot. Farther away from the chequered flag are Morardo, third, and Acquarella, fourth, able to withstand the pressure of Pezzucchi, fifth. Completing the top-10 were Zemin, sixth, Chiarello, seventh, Ehrensberger, eighth, Cutaia, ninth, and Demartis, tenth. Rigodanza, on the other hand, is forced to retire, leaving the scene at the start of lap eight while he is competing for fifth place with Pezzucchi.

In Race 2, Ehrensberger proves to be perfectly trained for the jump from the pole position and keeps the lead. Chiarello and Zemin also maintain their starting position at the end of the first lap, second and third respectively. Pezzucchi, on the other hand, slips from fourth to 11th on the first lap, while Morardo, Acquarella, Leopardi and Squaranti follow the leading trio. The tussle in the leading group begins on lap two when Zemin overtakes Chiarello to gain the second place. Meanwhile Acquarella is overtaken by both Leopardi and Squaranti, who find themselves fifth and sixth respectively, still behind Morardo. A close challenge for the victory thus begins, with six drivers sometimes running within just a second altogether. All the protagonists cleverly defend themselves, starting with Ehrensberger, who firmly holds the reins of the race. The coup de theatre occurs on lap seven when Chiarello tries to overtake Zemin, however this results in a collision between the two, forcing the latter to retire. Seizing the opportunity are Morardo and Leopardi, who move up to second and third position, respectively. The two Italians launch themselves in the chase of Ehrensberger, who takes advantage of the thrill behind him to gain more than a second's lead over his direct chasers and succeed in catching him three laps from the chequered flag. The Swiss driver reaffirms his defensive skills and leaves no room for his rivals, taking the victory ahead of Morardo and Leopardi. Squaranti finishes the race at close to the podium in fourth position and beating Chiarello, fifth, Pezzucchi, sixth, and Acquarella, seventh. Recovering several positions from the start are also Tagliacollo, eighth, Rigodanza, ninth, and Saba, tenth.