History was once again made in the streets of the city during the 28^th running of the Xtream Rock Island Grand Prix, the world’s largest karting street race. The event has a rich history of foreign competitors. This year, Scott “Skitchy” Barnes of Bermuda won his seventh and eighth Rock trophy and Erik Gasparovich of Latvia became the 20th foreign winner at Rock Island and first from his country. History was also made when Andrew Bujdoso of Ohio won his third consecutive King of the Streets shifter title, tying Alan Rudolph for the three-peat but becoming the only racer to be crowned King 3 consecutive times at Rock Island.

The Xtream Rock Island Grand Prix, the karting street race that national driver Race Liberante once called “the baddest-ass go-kart race in the world,” once again put on quite a show. This year, the largest crowd since pre-Covid years lined the course and was treated to some great action by some of the nation’s top drivers. Heavy rain late Saturday forced 3 heat races to be moved to Sunday morning, but the rest of the program was right on schedule.

Two giants of North American street racing faced off again during the 25^th annual Xtream Rock Island Grand Prix powered by Mediacom, world’s largest karting street race. After a five-year absence raising a family, Gary Lawson of Indiana returned to “The Rock” for the 25^th edition in hopes of adding to his 28 wins at the prestigious event. Meanwhile, Tony Neilson entered 10 of the 17 classes offered hoping to add to his 20 careers wins at Rock Island and closing the gap on Lawson. Lawson won three of the four races he entered – one at the expense of Neilson – while Neilson added three more wins to run his total to 23 including Yamaha Heavy 1. Another local Quad-Cities driver, Tim Goettsch, added a 12th career win in Yamaha Medium to move to third place in overall wins. Gage Rucker won the Yamaha Heavy 2 race.