Rock Island, Illinois — Registration is now open for the 30th annual The Xtream Rock Island Grand Prix, the world’s largest and most prestigious karting street race. This year’s race is August 30-31, 2025 and features classes for 2-cycle, 4-cycle, shifter and Vintage racers.
Back again this year in Briggs 206 are: Briggs Heavy 1 & 2, Briggs Medium 1 & 2, Briggs Light and Briggs Masters.
Rock Island will once again be the final race in the Ignite Grand Prix Cup series. Ignite classes are Ignite Senior 1 & 2, and Ignite Masters. Points will be assigned using the current Formula 1 points structure for places 1 through 10 with zero drops. The championship was created by Margay Racing, and the presenting sponsor is the Skip Barber Racing School, which will present the Ignite Senior champion with a one-day formula car school, valued at $4,000.
New this year is Margay’s new 100cc Ignite Senior class with the addition of Ignite 100cc Masters. Returning this year is the 100cc 2-cycle class for KA, VLR and Yamaha Open Pipe karts.
Also back this year are Open Shifter and Shifter Masters, and the addition of the new 80cc shifter class from SIRA in Indiana. Vintage karts will again be featured, including Open, Mac and Yamaha.
The highlight of the weekend will again be the King of the Streets race for shifters and King of The Rock races for 100cc and Briggs 206 entrants. All King classes have guaranteed purses of $1,000, $500 and $250 to first, second and third place finishers as long as there are adequate entries. Drivers are only eligible to enter the 3 King races if they have also entered another race in the same engine class.
Registration this year will be handled through RaceSelect. To register, go to https://raceselect.com/ROCK/2025. If you have a RaceSelect account, log in and begin registration. If not, please create an account first. You can click on INFO, which will take you to the Grand Prix website for class data and Supplemental Rules.
There are some changes this year. Drivers can save money by not having to purchase tires through the Grand Prix. Any tires and compounds listed in the Supplemental Rules can be used, but the same tires must be used for Qualifying, Heat Races and Finals. Registration and pit spots fees have increased slightly, as have prices of everything else these days.
A number of important changes have been made this year.
- While specific brands and compound options will be announced for most classes, entrants no longer have to purchase tires through the Grand Prix at registration, providing racer with significant savings. Approved tire brands are: Hoosier, MG, Levanto, Vega and Evinco. Ignite classes will follow their ruleset, and there are no specified tires for Vintage classes. Tire brands and compounds for specific classes will be spelled out in the Supplemental Rules at racerockisland.info.
- With the elimination of tire purchases comes an increase in entry fees to $160 per class with the exception of Vintage, which remains at $80. However, drivers who have raced at Rock Island before and bring a driver who has never raced here will receive a free race entry for each new driver. Further details are spelled out at racerockisland.info.
- The race is moving back to the original race course, much of which has been rebuilt and repaved to make it smoother.
- At last year’s race, drivers noted that they liked having some slower corners, which provide unique passing zones. As a result, a design change will be made on this year’s track, providing new, unique racing opportunities.
- At the end of Saturday’s Heat Races, a Briggs Heavy and Medium Feature race will be held to close out the day and give Briggs racers a few less classes to have to compete in on Sunday.
- In an effort to improve safety and hopefully avoid needless collisions, LeMans style starts have been eliminated at Rock Island. Formula 1-style starts, either with or without warm-up laps, and rolling starts, will be used instead. Starts will be specified in the Supplemental Rules.
- Rock Island Grand Prix Scholarships to the SKUSA SuperNats from Simpson Motorsports-STL will be awarded to winners of King of the Streets, Masters Shifter and 100cc King of The Rock races. Winners receive paid entry fee, 2 sets of tires, oil and gas paid for (a $1,600 value).
- Rok Cup USA is also offering tickets to Rok Vegas or Florida Winter Tour (one race) to Rok racers who finish first, second or third in 100cc or shifter classes with a Vortex engine ($600 value). If racers finish on the podium with a Vortex engine and Levanto or Vega tires, they will receive a free entry with consumables (a $1,500 value). These tickets can also be traded for a Wild Card Ticket that can be used at any Roc event in the U.S. or Canada.
Racers are encouraged to make plans early. The room block for the Grand Prix at the Holiday Inn is waiting, and it’s easy to get here. More than 159,000 passengers passed through the Quad Cities International Airport in Moline last year with direct flights from Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Orlando, Phoenix-Mesa, St. Pete-Clearwater, Charlotte, Atlanta and Las Vegas. Interstate highways 80, 88, 280 and 74 all pass through the area.
Rock Island is located in an area known as the Quad-Cities, equally divided between Illinois and Iowa, with a metropolitan population of just under 400,000. It is home to the Rock Island Arsenal military base and corporate headquarters for John Deere in Moline, Ill. It is served by the Quad-City International Airport and is at the intersection of Interstate highways 80, 74, 88 and 280.
The race has featured competitive teams from 39 states, as well as 11 foreign teams and 13 foreign winners.
Sponsors for the event include: Mediacom, Simpson Motorsports, Bally’s Quad-Cities Casino & Hotel, National Karting Alliance, Margay Racing, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Group O, Illinois Casualty Co., Neilson Trucking, Shaw Electric, Halligan McCabe DeVries Funeral Home, Hiland Toyota, Lincoln Electric, Speedway Fire & Rescue, RLV Tuned Exhaust, CBS TV4 / Fox 18 and CW, the local iHeart Radio stations: Big 106.5, Fox Sports QC, WOC and WLLR, QC Sports Net, Schurr Power Racing Engines and Tyler Schurr Racing, Sunbelt Rentals, Johannes Bus Service, C&W and Sons Trucking, Holiday Inn Rock Island, eKartingNews.com, Key Auto Mall, Gas & Electric Credit Union, Rogan Scale, Triple E Sales, Duncalf Racing, Fastenal, Hughes Tire and RIGP Corner Workers.