been racing shifters in norcal the past few years and having a ton of fun. Want to do a Vegas race as a bucket list thing. Plan to race in a 125 shifter and I’m ~40 years old.
Anyone have any preference of one over the other as the better experience?
Never been to Rok the Rio but if there’s one event in karting that is a must attend at some point, it has to be SuperNats.
I think this year was my 10th trip to SuperNats and it’s still amazing every time, even with some of my complaints I’ve had the last few years.
Sitting on the bleachers with a cold beverage to watch the KZ guys is pretty great.
I haven’t done Supernats, but have done Rok Vegas twice in shifter (once in shifter and one in masters). The numbers unfortunately in Rok shifter classes seem to be dwindling and so when I do Vegas again I will do Supernats even though I’m not a skusa fan.
thanks guys.
i meant to show up as a driver and race.
The case for ROK the Rio is that it is in Vegas, everyone is driving ROK motor which is a lot cheaper and more reliable maybe and not as crazy expensive KZ, so basically it is a good bit cheaper and that it is maybe not quite as intense which could be more fun.
the case for supernats is that it is SUPERNATS. the one and only USA olympics of karting. nuff said. maybe 2x more expensive than ROK the rio?
I should look up the kart counts though good point, I will be racing in some masters shifter class since I’m an old man
I’ll tack on to this and say I was very happy to not have to endure the pressure of making the show on Sunday when I raced the 2023 edition of Rok the Rio. Not to mention the horrible track design that SKUSA had for the Supernationals that year, I was very glad to be at Rok instead.
That said, SuperNats is the bucket list karting race. I’d race that if you can only choose one.
Chiming in as someone who has raced Supernats in KZ Masters, and also worked as a mechanic at Rok the Rio for a Rok Shifter Masters driver.
Both races are going to be comparatively expensive, unless you already own an engine of either platform. Tires, pit space, travel, lodging will be about the same for both. Engines rentals for Rok won’t differ much from KZ. Depending on how competitive you expect to be, and how prepared you WANT to be, I would show up to either race with two engines (practice engine and race engine). Either can be done with one engine, but I’d plan to have fresh pistons ready in either scenario.
If you care about racing against the best drivers as well as a larger field, then there’s only one answer…Supernats.
That said, we had 50 drivers in KZ Masters in 2024, so there was a range of talent, and there was racing to be had regardless of whether you were at the front, middle, or back of the pack.
thanks guys, love the feedback from those who have done it before. Now leaning more towards supernats than before.
in the KZ class at supernats, are there larger differences between the various engines than there would be at ROK the Rio?
part of attraction for ROK the Rio is just that everyone theoretically is on more even engines vs kz class at supernats
also nobody on west coast really races KZ so I was told that renting a KZ is more expensive than a ROK because the engine builders can’t really stock the KZ and basically just have to buy them for supernats
I’ll be racing ROK 125 shifter on west coast this season leading up to whatever vegas race I end up at
Maybe only slightly. The good news is that a top preparation TM R2 runs pretty darn well once configured out of the box. The biggest limitation is always going to be carburetion…if you miss that it won’t matter if you have a “B-” engine or an “A++” engine. As someone who does engine work and has seen a significant number of KZ engines of various levels come across my workbench, it’s my opinion that only the top top top few drivers have engines with a notable power advantage, and even at that the difference is still quite small. I had top 10 pace at Supernats, and even if I had the same engine as Lammers he still would have whooped my ass 
It’s important to note that there is also a difference across Rok engines. Not all cylinders/pipes are created exactly equally, so those with more resources can hand pick the best components. So the same dynamic applies; the top 3 or so drivers probably have a slight slight edge in power.
thanks Evan, super helpful, I didn’t realize the top prep’d TM R2 engines were that equal/competitive.
I’m just going to have fun and a crazy experience and finish my races so not expecting to win my first time out or anything so as long as my engine package is in the same neighborhood as everyone else that should be fine.
I would plan to be under the tent with one of the better shops around so hopefully that would include someone super experienced doing my carb tuning to keep the engine on point since I have zero experience tuning a TM or any KZ motor