The 2025 Tillotson T4 Nations Cup was once again held outside beautiful Valencia, Spain at the Kartódromo Internacional Lucas Guerrero on October 1-5. The Nations Cup is Tillotson’s international karting event where drivers not only compete for the podium in their individual categories, but also for points for their country and the coveted Nations Cup Trophy. The top 3 drivers from each country accumulate points from the final classification of the Super Heats and the ultimate results of the Final. The country with the most points takes home the travelling T4 Nations Cup Trophy until next year.
This year, the T4 Nations Cup grew to 246 drivers from 37 countries. Like last year, the classes included T4 Mini, T4 Junior, T4 Senior, and T4 Senior 168, plus a Masters category that ran as part of the T4 Senior 168 class and a Bambino class, making the age range for the event 5 to 65+! The event was organized by Tillotson Racing and serviced by RGMMC under the Spanish Real Federación Español de Autovolismo (RFEDA) permit. Technical officials were provided by Munster Kart club (Motorsport Ireland) and Formula Karting (KNAF) to keep tight control of the material for the race.
This year’s Nations Cup was sponsored by Maxxis and featured their T4 Tyre specifically designed to provide enhanced grip and handling for the T4 kart. It also featured Marline’s Premium 4 Temps fuel. Premium 4 Temps is a highly refined alkylate gasoline with near zero aromatic hydrocarbons (0.4%) and benzene (0.01%), making it cleaner burning and safer for both the users and the environment compared to standard fuels. Other major sponsors included Skip Barber Racing School, who provided a Formula 4 test drive to the winner of the Senior Class, T-Kart, who provided onsite coverage on their social channels throughout the event KartSim, who ran a T4 simulator for everyone to enjoy while not racing, Xeramic Lubricants, who provided a supply of various products to all racers, and IPK, who provided chassis support throughout the event, as well as: DWT, Noram, TIDL Sport, PVL Ignitions, and our event partners: Kartódromo Internacional Lucas Gerrero, RGMMC, RFEDA, Munster Kart Club.
This year, the torrential thunderstorms arrived on Sunday and lasted through Tuesday morning, causing some major discomfort to the setup crew. Fortunately, most of them were from Ireland, so they were accustomed to a bit of rain and managed to get the gates open with only a few hours of delay. The rest of the race schedule enjoyed plenty of sunshine and perfect race weather!
The event kicked off on Thursday with practice sessions and continued on Friday with qualifying heats and the Drivers Parade. Saturday was filled with racing heats. The Valencia Kartódromo is a fast and technical 1.495 km track with long straightaways, two chicanes and several passing opportunities. With those perfect conditions, the crowds on Sunday witnessed five finals with multiple lead changes and podium challenges right up to the last lap.
Going into the Finals, the points for the Nations Cup were extremely close. The Dutch team held a slight lead, the UK were 5 points back, the USA were within 5 points, and the Irish were 12 points off, with plenty of top drivers from each country in position to claim victory for their countries.
T4 Mini
As always, the T4 Mini class offered exciting racing throughout the weekend with several lead changes throughout the races. For the start of the Super Heat, the six top drivers were from five different countries (Jason Beganovic (NED) on pole, followed by Jack Harney (IRL), Rolfe Logan (GBR), Lewis Kirkaldy (GBR), Mokhnach Zakhar (UKR) and Diego Berardone (RSA)), all looking to score early points for their teams in the Nations Cup race. Senan Mcloughlin (IRL) and Liam Bourghol (USA) were next in line in contention for points.
The young drivers were a little anxious and it took two laps to get a clean start. The third time was a charm—sort of—as it was clean across the starting line, but several drivers in the middle of the pack spun out or went wide going into the first turn. Meanwhile, at the front, Zakhar moved up to P3, and Rolfe jumped from P3 to P1. Rolfe, Beganovic and Zakhar battled throughout the opening laps, trading places several times. Eventually, Zakhar settled into the lead and held off the rest of the grid until the last lap, when Rolfe took the lead briefly then gave it back, and then disaster struck when Rolfe nudged Zakhar from behind in the middle of the lap. Zakhar spun out, but his great driving skill kept him just off the track and he was able to get back into the race and salvage P7, while Rolfe tumbled down to P4, leaving Beganovic to claim victory, followed by Harney and Kirkaldy. Rolfe was issued a 5 second penalty that ultimately put him in P18, but his earlier strong finishes allowed him to start at P6 for the finals.
The Finals began with Beganovic on pole followed by Harney, Kirkaldy, Zakhar, Berardone and Rolfe. This time, the race started cleanly across the starting line and through the first turn and chicane. In the second lap, the Irish came on strong, with Harney in P2, Mcloughlin moving way up to P3 and Jack Miller (IRL), who started in P14, jumping all the way to P5. Meanwhile, a major shakeup with the former leaders put Kirkaldy in P1 and dropped the former leader, Beganovic, down P19 Zakhar down to P22, Rolfe down to P6 and Berardone down to P8. Over the next several laps, Rolfe worked his way back up to P2, while another Brit, Benjamin Sljivar (GBR), pushed up to P5 and started to battle with the Irishmen McLoughlin and Harney for the podium. As the race reached the final two laps, Kirkaldy and Rolfe pulled away from the rest of the pack but remained nose to tail, setting up for an epic battle in the final lap. Meanwhile, Mcloughlin, Harney Sljivar and Bourghol were already fighting for P3, changing places several times, while Beganovic had an amazing recovery from P19 back to P9. As they made their way to the back half of the track in the final lap, Rolfe started challenging Kirkaldy in earnest and took the lead on a switchback move at turns 12 and 13. Kirkaldy tried to reclaim it in the final turns after the back straight, but Rolfe held strong for the win. Meanwhile, the battle for P3 went horribly wrong for Mcloughlin as he slipped back to P7. The final podium P1 Rolfe (UK), P2 Logan (UK) and P3 Harney (IRL)
The victory for Rolfe and team UK was particularly sweet, because shortly before the race, Rolfe was the victim of a theft in which he lost all his racing gear and was nearly unable to attend the race. With the help of his team and Go Fund Me account, he raised enough money to get all new gear and join the rest of his team. The P1-2 finish by the UK drivers put them in a solid lead for the Nations Cup. The Dutch team would have to match that to win and do better if the UK put up a P1 or P2 finish in any of the remaining races. The USA still had a chance with a pair of P1’s and a P2 finish, but it was going to be difficult with the strength of the other teams across the remaining categories.
T4 Junior
For the T4 Juniors, the qualifying heats were incredibly close, with 6 different drivers (Finlay Lines (GBR), Ronan Kamphuis (NED), Derek Wargo (USA), Riley Bishop (GBR), Stijn Hanssen (NED) and Paulo Willemann (BR)) topping the 6 qualifying heats and a seventh driver (Adela Prusova (CZE) posting the fastest lap in the Saturday morning shakedown. By the end of the two Super Heats, the 50 junior drivers were whittled down to 36 positions for the Finals, with Hanssen securing pole, followed by Kamphuis, Wargo and Willemann. Finlay Lines had a disqualification in an early qualifying heat and, despite strong showings throughout the rest of the racing, found himself at P15 on the starting grid.
It was clean across the start line for the Finals, but right at the first turn, a spin out by Yaromir Arkhipov (ESP) who had moved up to P4 caused a massive pile up that caused all the karts behind him to go wide or take evasive manoeuvres and completely re-arranged the grid beyond Hanssen, Kamphuis and Wargo. Turn 2 saw more drama as a handful of other drivers went off track. When the dust settled, it was Hanssen, Wargo and Kamphuis in a group at the front followed close behind by Bishop and Lines. Bishop quickly moved up to third a few turns later in the first lap and then jumped past Wargo and Hanssen at the start of P2 to take over first. Bishop held the lead for the next few laps, but there were plenty of challenges and position changes behind him, including a challenge to Bishop in the fifth lap that sent Hanssen off the track and tumbling down the order out of contention. By the tenth lap, Bishop, Kamphuis and Lines had put a small gap between themselves and Wargo, but the battling and defending among them let Wargo close that gap, engage in the battle and move into second just before the start of the last lap. Lines and Wargo moved ahead of Bishop and Kamphuis as the two of them battled for P3. Wargo tried a few moves on Lines, but Lines defended beautifully, and in the end it was Lines, Wargo and Kamphuis across the finish line in that order, followed by Bishop in P4.
That gave the Brits two P1s and a P2 finish in the Finals and moved them ahead of the Netherlands for the Nations Cup. Even with Wargo’s P2 finish for the US, it would be impossible for them to catch the Brits with only two races left. The Dutch still had a chance, but they would need two P1’s and a P2 finish in the next two races, and no P1 from a British driver.
T4 Senior
Next up was the T4 Senior Category, where an event record 103 drivers were competing for only 36 spots on in the Finals grid. After the Superheats, Jorn Bremer (NED) secured the pole position for the Dutch team, followed by Ian Quinn (USA), Frederico Peters (POR), Lucas Blantford (USA), Stefano Perseghin (ITA) and Jimmy Cabrera (USA). The 2023 Nations Cup Senior Winner, Noah Rosser (USA), was starting in 11th after having been disqualified in an earlier race due to a chain guard issue. That grid gave the Dutch team a good chance to secure a desperately needed top finish and the USA its best a chance to sweep the podium to get back in contention for the Nations Cup.
The Senior Final also began cleanly across the starting line and through the first turn, but at turns 2 and 3, the front of the pack went three wide as they jockeyed for position and mayhem struck the back half of the pack as several drivers spun or went off the track. Once everyone got back running and with the first lap behind them, it was Peters in front, followed by Bremer, Perseghin and Quinn. That order didn’t last long, as Perseghin and Quinn pushed past Bremer, who fell all the down to P5. Meanwhile, further back in the pack, the Spanish driver Antonio Martinez found trouble in the chicane that dropped him to last place and contact drove Rosser down to P26, which looked to take him out of the race for the Americana. By Lap 5, Vanelleswijk joined the battle at the front and pushed his way into P1, at which point, a crash with Antonio Guerreschi (ITA) required medical attention and caused a full course yellow, allowing the entire grid to close ranks. The yellow flag lasted until lap 9, and the battle at the front among Vanelleswijk, Perseghin and Quinn resumed, with the three of them changing places over the next several laps. Delon Thompson (RSA) and Blantford joined the battle that raged through the final sector where a melee in the final chicane sent Perseghin over the top of Thompson, driving the two of them out of the race and letting Quinn and Blantford cross the finish line in P1 and P2, followed by Vanelleswijk. Blantford’s second place finish seemed to lock the Nations Cup for the British team, but both he and Quinn were hit with a 5 second penalty for a nosecone violation, dropping them down to P11 and P8, respectively, and gave the Dutch the win with Vanelleswijk and elevated Gomes, the local Spanish favorite, to P2 and the American Jimmy Cabrera to P3.
For his P1 finish, Vanelleswijk won a Formula 4 Test Day with Skip Barber Racing School, a coveted prize that will be sure to advance his driving skills for next year!
That meant that the Dutch were not out of the Nations Cup points race just yet. A P1-P2 finish in the Senior 168 category could still put them ahead of the British team.
T4 Senior 168 and Masters Trophy
In the Senior 168 category, last year’s winner Christoph Wenzke (GER) was back to defend his title, but this time starting from P2. The British driver Anwar Beroual-Smith was in P1, while the hopes of the Dutch team rested on Mats Mooij and Peter Jansen close behind in P3 and P4. Another British Driver, Oliver Smith, rounded out the top 5 while the Irish’s last hope for a podium rested with Colm Munnelly, the Irish T4 Senior 168 Champion, in P6.
It was a fully clean start to the race, with the top 6 holding positions and forming a train that lasted through the first three laps. In the fourth, Munnelly started making moves to get up to P4 while Mooij ran up the back of Wenzke letting Munnelly get past both of them to get into P3. Mooij battled back to reclaim P3, which allowed Beroual-Smith to create a .6 second gap, but he couldn’t extend that lead, as Gonzalo Aponte (PUR) rolled his kart and triggered a full course yellow, allowing the rest of the field to catch up. After a bit of care, Aponte was able to walk off the course without assistance, and the full racing resumed in Lap 8. Beroual-Smith got a clean start to reclaim part of his gap, while a group of drivers midpack tangled up once at the chicane. Beroual-Smith continued to extend his lead while Mooij, Munnelly and Wenzke engaged in a fierce battle for P2 through 4. At several points, it seemed like they defied the laws of physics with some incredible moves, but Wenzke’s overreached in Lap 12, running over the back of Munnelly and dropping himself down to P8. With Wenske out of the battle, the top three settled in and crossed the finish line with Beroual-Smith in P1, Mooij in P2 and Munnelly in P3. Beroual-Smith also claimed the Masters trophy with his P1 finish.
The Nations Cup
Beroual-Smith’s victory sealed the Nations Cup Trophy for the UK. The travelling trophy would now return the UK where it first resided in 2022. The Netherlands had to settle once again for second with the US in third. The Dutch team fought hard throughout the racing, but a spout of bad luck meant they would have to come back to try again next year.
T4 Bambino
After a short break to revise the track setup, drivers for the new Bambino class took their places on the grid. The Bambino class runs its own smallest T4 chassis and a 105cc four stroke engine for drivers 5-8 years old. This year’s grid nearly tripled, from an exhibition of six drivers in 2025 to a full class of 17 drivers from seven countries.
The Dominican drivers Shamir Licairac and Ethan Pichardo started the finals if P1 and P2, and Takachika Kokuho, the first Japanese driver to attend the Nations Cup, started in P3. Raeff Virdee (GBR), who is acting as a worldwide ambassador for T4 racing, started in P4 while two more Dominicans, Edgar Urena and Eduardo Espaillat, were 5 and 6. The Bambino’s are always fun to watch, with racing starting from a standing start and continuing for 8 laps. Kokuho immediately started challenging Pichardo for P2 and managed to get past him by the third lap and then take over P1 in the 7th. Tensions clearly started to rise in the penultimate lap. Virdee was trying to push himself to get on the podium but ended up spinning and dropping to P5. A short bit later, contact from Licairac caused Kokuho to go sideways, allowing Pichardo to get past and ultimately take P1, followed by Urena in P2and Bernardo Matteos (ESP), who had started the race in P7, completing the podium in P3.
Pole Position Trophy
Maxxis Tyres sponsored a pole position trophy for the person who finished on pole for the start of the qualifying heats. The trophies were awarded as follows:
T4 Mini – Mokhnach Zakhar (UKR)
T4 Junior – Ronan Kamphuis (NED)
T4 Senior – Noah Rosser (USA)
T4 Senior 168 – Estaban Yanguas (COL)
Ladies of T4 Series
Special mention must go to Fabienne Lanz (South Africa) who is the appointed “Ladies of T4 Series” ambassador. This initiative was developed to support female drivers of all ages within T4 Series globally. This is Fabienne’s third year undertaking this role at the event with resounding positive feedback from the female drivers and their families. Fabienne’s role consists of assisting the drivers with their race preparation, kart set up, driver coaching, and media support throughout the event. For 2026 Tillotson have plans to expand this level of support to other international events for Ladies of T4 Series. Check out our “Chats in the Pits” series available across all social channels.
Closing
It truly was a fantastic weekend of racing. You can watch all the races with commentary from Jake Sanson and Simon Byford on the Tillotson Racing YouTube Channel. The livestream was provided by RGMMC, helping bring the event to family and fans around the world. Racers and family can purchase photographs from Official T4 Nations Cup Photographers.
Supplemental media coverage was provided by:
- Stu Strretton Media (Josh East & Stu Stretton, UK)
- Sportsframe6 (Marc Bechtold, Holland)
- MayDave Media (Dave & May, Spain)
- Gilmar Rose (Brazil)
By offering an affordable mono-brand racing, the T4 Series makes the race about the driver’s skill, not about the driver’s budget. T4 Series combines the T4 chassis developed in partnership with IPK, Tillotson’s TPP-225RS engine and a set of specifically designed Maxxis T4 tyres, all working together to make for simple, hassle-free karting at highest level of performance possible in a 4-stroke package.
We look forward to seeing everyone at the 2026 T4 Nations Cup. Check online at Tillotson.ie or with your local racing federations for the place and dates, as well as for local championships and special events where you can win a ticket throughout the year, or join us online on KartSim and Rfactor2 for our T4 Esports Championship Series, where the winner also earns a ticket!
