Online Karting Series from ROK Cup USA, Presented by Conrad Insurance Agency

Other Motorsports Incl Sim Racing
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1

So this caught my attention today. Who’s going to give it a go?

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Summary

Three race series
$500 to enter the series (ie $500 covers all races)
Live broadcast with commentary
$60K in prize Money
Based on Kart Racing Pro + some custom mods…
Steering wheel controllers only.

Here’s the Press release…

ROK Cup Sim Challenge Presented by Conrad Group Insurance Agency Launches Three Race Program

“ROKKERS will have the opportunity to keep racing amidst pandemic”

The ROK Cup Sim Challenge Presented by Conrad Group Insurance Agency will go green on Monday April 20th

April 8, 2020 - As racers around the globe look for an alternative amidst a global pandemic, ROK Cup USA and RTD Media & Management, in a partnership with Torque Esports, are pleased to announce the ROK Cup Sim Challenge Presented by Conrad Group Insurance Agency. With the first series featuring ten ROK Cup classes and going green on April 20th, nearly $60,000 in cash prizes are up for grabs with a maximum of 24 entries per class.

“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. When we floated the idea out via social media, there was a huge response including businesses that wanted to be on board. Showing their support and growth in motorsports, Conrad Group Insurance Agency stepped up to be the presenting sponsor of the first three race series.”

With days of research bringing up dead ends and higher costs than anticipated, a connection was made with Torque Esports and developers were working on a program within a few hours while the potential online karting program was pieced together.

“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, but with everything that transpired over the past three weeks, we needed 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,” added Garett Potter. “We immediately went to work; 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 as well. In today’s world we need to work fast to stay ahead, and this is a perfect example of the team that we have in place.”

Set to commence and go green on Monday, April 20th, a three-race program over a one-week span will make it easier for racers to stay in the seat albeit virtually. The entry fee for the series will be an affordable $500 per entrant but the program is set to award nearly $60,000 in cash prizes. Running 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 nearly complete and will be pushed live on Friday, April 10th and will include even more details.

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

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A slight change in the ROK Cup USA class structure has been completed to allow more drivers to compete.

Class Structure

Micro ROK - Ages 7-9

Mini ROK - Ages 10-12

Junior ROK - Ages 12-15

Senior ROK - Ages 16-25

Masters ROK - Ages 26-35

Veteran ROK - Ages 36+

Shifter Junior ROK - Ages 12-15

Shifter Senior ROK - Ages 16-25

Shifter Masters ROK - Ages 26-35

Shifter Veteran ROK - Ages 36+

Championship Payout per ROK Class

Champion - $2000

Vice-Champion - $1500

Third - $1000

Fourth - $750

Fifth - $500

Classes with less than twenty-four entries will have adjusted payout structure that will be announced on series website

While RTD Media & Management, ROK Cup USA and Torque Esports work hard to bring this idea to the virtual world, we hope that all of you are staying safe and healthy during these difficult times by washing your hands, practicing social distancing and adhering to the recommendations for the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organizations.

ROK Cup USA and RTD Media will continually post news through their social media channels as they become available. Interested parties should email [email protected] to get notification when registration opens and other important news from the ROK Cup Sim Challenge Presented by Conrad Group Insurance Agency.

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Proposed Schedule

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2

Err I cant use fanatec?

3

$500 to enter a sim kart race on a 10 year old game is pretty laughable to be honest.

I had several diehard sim friends interested and once the entry fee was posted they all lost interest.

2 Likes
4

Cool idea but Im not interested in money race.

5

I think that would be fine, they just have the wheels there as examples. I tried it with a controller last night. Undriveable, at least for me even after tweaking every controller setting I could.

Looking at it in those terms sure I could understand that. Paying for a sim race or series is definitely out of the ordinary in most folk’s minds… But I think that’s a bit of an injustice to what’s being offered.

Age doesn’t matter IMO (Although KartKraft is about the same age?), the sim either meets the requirements or it doesn’t. KRP has been in continuous (albeit slow) development and my sense is that now there’s some extra resources available to Piboso to develop it further, with a specific focus which is important too.

Personally I like the idea because it’s ballsy and forward thinking. It’s one thing to sponsor and or run a series for kart racer in iRacing, RF2 etc etc… It’s another to put your money where your mouth is and double down on building a karting sim.

The optimist in me says, this could be the start of the karting simulation that we’ve been asking for.

6

It could. It’s a great idea. That being said, if it’s a bunch of guys like, well, me, who are “expert” at sim, the races have a chance of being good. My concern is paying 500 (which is a lot) to have a crap experience. The prize money will bring out crappy driving etc.

I don’t want to play for money. That’s a rabbit hole that I don’t want in my life.

Would I race against Tanguy, Eric, sheenu, Evan etc for money? Maybe as a gentleman’s thing, because I know their driving and trust them. We’d all try to win, hard, but it wouldn’t be the same as against strangers in it for the $£€¥. However, all these guys are better than me, and I’d just be giving them money lol.

Thinking about it, if I were sponsored I’d have no issues. That’s what they be paying me for. Suck it up and send it. But, I’m not an alien like Tanguy and I’m not playing the kind of games that matter at a high level (iracing). Also, my skill is pretty much limited to whatever I focus on. I don’t know that I could get super sharp in KRP. I’m pretty useless in our messing around games like forza etc.

Also 500 is almost 6 tires irl. Thats 2.5 races of rubber!

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7

But at $500 you only get to look at the rubber. Maybe heat it up with a blow torch or something ha.

8

Oh I’ll burn the rubber just fine. Drifting.

9

I’m 100% in agreement there.

  1. Way too extortionate
  2. Outdated game
  3. Out of touch during Covid times.

Pass. Hard pass.

10

This is a valid point. Real-life money races already bring out some questionable driving. I can’t imagine what sort of BS driving will occur when there is money on the line and no real consequences to driving like an idiot.

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Finally bear in mind that each sim is different. I have had to evolve the way I drive in KK as handling changed over the development cycle. Sim is it’s own thing, and each has its own quirks.

I think it’s different that racing multiple classes irl. The constants change and are different in sim.

I am sorta being a wimp, here.

12

I was in a few KRP leagues around 2015-2016. I could hardly do more than 3 laps at any track without spinning out under braking or flipping over from some random death curb. That was with hours of practice. And the guys who won almost always started on pole. Unless the leader got wrecked or something dumb happened. Granted that was 5 years ago and I’m sure improvements have been made, but in my opinion no one has nailed the physics of driving a kart properly in a sim.

To put so much money on the line for this event is quite ridiculous, and takes all the fun out of the event.
Hell I thought the $50 iRacing league I joined was too much.

Very interested to see who does turn out and compete.

1 Like
13

I have had some time to mull it over and rather than be negative I think there is merit in this idea.
To be fair, if this were KartKraft, in normal times, I’d jump on it. I think that if you were a player of that sim, and you were comfortable with spending roughy 1/2-1/3 of a typical race weekend expense wise, it makes sense. Why the hell not?
Rich dudes can play and battle in the back until they git gud and fast dudes can be sponsored. I would imagine its peanuts for good exposure, if this works. RPG tent, etc. They don’t have to have actual kart racers represent them, if they don’t have any that do both. I’m sure Norberg has pals that are super sharp in sim, for example. Not hard to recruit… “Hey, wanna represent us at this online thing? We’ll pay your entry fee.”
So, I approve. It’s nuts, but why not. In normal times, I think this would actually go a long ways to making sim karting a real thing. The problem is that its a great idea in the wrong moment. Ironically, it came to be because of the moment, even.

1 Like
14

Some pretty interesting economics.

Entry fees
10 class
24 per class
$500 per entry
———————-
$160,000

Pay out
1st $2000
2nd $1500
3rd $1000
4th $750
5th $500
——————-
$5750 per class
X10 classes
——————-
$57,500

Fixed costs
announcer 1500?
programmer to do mods 3000?
race director 3000?
——————-
$7500

Revenue $120,000
Payout $57,500
Net revenue $62,000
Fixed costs $7,500
——————
Net profit $55,000

So collect $120,000 assuming you fill all classes (240 entries) and payout $57,700 (but call it $60,000?). Leaves $62,500 to pay fixed cost of im guessing $7,500 and this nets $55,000 in profit.

I’d bet my fastest motor that’s more profitable than any ROK race in the US. :wink:

15

From what I understand, It’s more than just a mod in the traditional sense where you’re building something on top of the base code of the sim.

Torque Esports and Rok Cup USA are investing in the development of Kart Racing Pro platform itself as well as building a mod that I assume will add some sort of Rok Cup flavor.

1 Like
16

Ah, that maybe true. I can’t say I really know what it costs. And $3000 was a guess from spending a bit of time with Bobs Track Builder and google earth. They could very well have to sink a lot into KRP to get a product they like.

And for the record I hope this or some version works for the karting community. And you can’t expect the first few iterations to be perfect. Good luck to them.

1 Like
17

I hear ya, I’m just highlighting what seems to be happening vs what it might look like at a glance.

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18

Also, I generally approve, even if expensive. It’s economic activity and a guys gotta make a living. This must be effing brutal for the folks whose livelihoods depend on karting.