14-year-old Nathan Blok of Beachburg has clinched a top 10 finish, taking home seventh place from the May 3 Junior Rotax race.

And this year’s he’s racing against some of the big boys as rules now allow a driver to race in Junior as long as they don’t turn 17 prior to Dec. 31, 2008.

During the May 9 practice session, Blok and his family had difficulties with chassis setup and heading into Saturday’s qualifying bad weather forced the use of rain tires and wet weather setup. The end result for qualifying was 4th of 15 and .46 seconds off the pole sitter.

Starting 4th in the rain for the Blok gave his kart a little too much gas on lap 2 and spun. By the time he got turned around and back on the track, he had dropped to the back of the field, and was trailing four seconds behind last place.

Over the next several laps, despite a fogged up visor, Blok was able to gain some time and by lap 7 had passed three others to claim 12th position where he remained at the chequered flag without additional time to gain more spots.

As the final approached, while most of the track remained wet and slippery, the racing line began to dry up so everyone went to sponsors.phpa dry tire setup.

It was also still quite damp and cold so to help with the visor fogging, Blok and his team decided to put tape over his face in an effort to force the moist hot air out the bottom of his helmet.

This proved to be a major mistake early on in the race, as the tape on his skin came loose and hampered his vision.

Starting in 12th place, Blok did well off the start, gaining four positions within the first five laps, two of those credited to an on-track incident between to karters and a mistake by another which allowed for easy overtaking.

While in 8th place, the tape started to affect Blok’s vision and he was forced to drive the remainder of the race with one hand, while holding the tape down with the other.

On lap 7, Blok went a little two wide opening up the inside for two karts to pass, while at the same time another went off leaving Blok in 9th place.

On the final lap, one kart near the front also went off the track, moving
Blok up into 8th position but he officially finished seventh as a fellow karter was penalized with a three-position penalty due to an incident with another kart.

While Blok was hoping to do a bit better, he was pleased with the results considering he drove approximately 11 laps averaging over 80 km per hour, with only one hand on the steering wheel.

Stay tuned for results from Race #2 which took place May 17 Monte St. Hilaire.