After a challenging 2007 racing season, Nathan Blok of Beachburg plans to use that experience to springboard himself to the front of the pack.

Last year was his first season competing in the faster junior Rotax go-kart class. He finished mid-pack in the points, placing 12th out of 23 racers. He also finished in 6th place in the Junior Rotax Championship with the Toronto Kart Club.

"We feel more confident this year," Blok said during a recent sponsor reception for his Racin' Nathan Go-Kart Team. "Last year we had some mechanical difficulties with the coil during the season."

Last year, the team switched midseason from a used 2002 Tonykart chassis to a brand new Mach 1 kart from Germany. The change meant Blok had to go through a steep learning curve twice in one season - once for the faster series and again for the new kart. Most of the other racers in the series were 14 and 15 years old and had been driving in the series for a couple of years.

As the race season wore on, the Blok team noticed its engine required a jet higher than all the other karts in order to run correctly. The problem continued to get worse as the series wore on. In one race, the team pushed the engine too hard and it blew.

After the season was over, SRA Karting (the Canadian Rotax engine importer) took the team's engine to find out what the problem was. It was discovered the ignition box was defective and had been since the start of the season. The problem had robbed Blok's kart of four horsepower throughout the year. Considering the engine produces about 24 horsepower, Blok was conceding a lot of speed to the other racers.

"The horsepower we were losing was mostly on the straights. You could really see the difference in our straight line speed," he said.

With the engine problem solved, and a year's experience under his belt, Blok is looking forward to the beginning of the seven race Coupe de Montreal series this May.

In addition, Blok intends to attempt to qualify at a special race at Grandmere, Quebec where the top two finishers will represent Canada at the Rotax worlds. He needs only to compete in three Rotax series races in order to be eligible to go to Grandmere.

"My goals for this year are to hopefully place very well in the Coupe de Montreal and I'm going to the nationals where I want to be in the top two so I can represent Canada at the Rotax world finals," Blok said.

During the off season, Blok said he helped his father rebuild the kart and also kept his skills sharp by playing driving video games with a racing wheel and pedals.

By ANTHONY DIXON
The Daily Observer

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