1st and 2nd at COMPLEX ICAR - 3rd in Championship

MIRABEL, QUEBEC – Nathan Blok continued his charge for the Production Class Championship in the Super Production Challenge (SPC) at ICAR COMPLEX, Mirabel this past weekend, however it was a case of winning the battle, but losing the war.

Blok headed into the final 2 rounds of the Super Production Challenge 67 points adrift of championship leader Owen Clarke, and Nelson Chan who was only 6 points behind. He needed to be flawless all weekend, and hope for bad luck to fall the way of the others.

In Friday testing, that's exactly what happened. Nelson Chan crashed and totalled his teammates car attempting to avoid hitting another car slowing abruptly. Deemed unable to race for medical complications from the crash, he would be forced to sit out for the final races. Although Nelson couldn't compete, the unique point structure in SPC meant that because it was his teammates car involved in the crash, Chan's car and Team Octane was still eligible to win the title at the hands of Carlos Tesler-Mabe.

After some performance was found by the Apex V2R team from the GP3R rounds on-wards, Ryspec’s Owen Clarke and Blok were almost identical in lap times during Friday’s testing.

Saturday morning came and so did the rain, handing the advantage back to the front wheel drive cars at Team Octane. As qualifying approached the sun came out and the track dried rapidly. Unfortunately it was Blok’s turn to have some bad luck as an ECU failure prevented his automatic transmission from blipping the throttle on downshifts. But despite that Blok managed to qualify in 3rd.

Race 1 would start after the lights used for the standing start procedure remained on, giving the drivers no warning when the race would begin. Blok would drop to 6th by the end of the first lap. Blok managed to overtake his way up to 2nd by lap 4 when a full course yellow came out, with some Super Production class cars separating himself from Owen. Blok timed the restart perfectly and was right on Owen's tail immediately, eventually completing the overtake for 1st place several laps later. After an intense display of defensive driving, Clarke eventually ran out of fuel, and with Blok’s teammate Suellio Almeida behind secured his first SPC win. Suellio would unfortunately lose the podium due to an overtake under yellow flags.

There would be no time to celebrate as the finale would take place only a few hours later. However the results from the first race gave Nelson Chan and Team Octane the points they needed to secure the production class title. Meanwhile Clarke’s DNF meant that if Blok won the race and Clarke finished 3rd or lower, Blok would finish 2nd in the championship points.

The randomized dice role for qualifying pole would see the top 7 cars on the grid be inverted. Blok would be starting 5th, and Clarke 7th. After only a few laps Clarke would be leading with Blok being right behind. Despite a race long battle, that would be the final result.

After the race Blok said, “I gave it my all, took my 2 best finishes of the season, gave Apex V2R their first ever win in real life competition, and got to share the podium in the final race with Suellio, who didn't get his 3rd place taken away this time. We threw everything at the finale, but it was unfortunately not enough. Thanks to everyone who has supported me this season. It wouldn't have been possible without you!! “

2nd place finish at GP3R

TROIS RIVIERES, QUEBEC – Nathan Blok continued his charge for the Production Class Championship in the Super Production Challenge this past weekend on the infamous Trois Rivieres street course, a narrow track bordered by solid concrete walls in this old Quebec city.

The weather was extremely hot and humid all weekend for the 10, 11 and 12^th rounds of the Super Production Challenge (SPC).

Practice was held Friday morning, and things weren't looking too bright after ending practice down in 8th place and 2.5 seconds off the pace. After discovering some electrical issues the team took a literal "hail mary" towards setup for the twilight race on Friday night.

Starting the evening race based on championship order, Blok would be starting 3^rd in class. He made his way up to 2nd before a full course yellow momentarily neutralized the race. Once things resumed, Blok tried everything to take over the lead but ended up settling for 2nd place podium position in the end.

On Saturday for the 2nd race of the weekend Blok again starting 3^rd in class. A terrible start dropped Blok down to 9th position before the end of the 3rd lap. He made his way up to 7^th place before the race was ended early due to a drunk spectator who had somehow made his way onto the track.

The 3^rd race of the weekend on Sunday saw Blok starting 2^nd. A short battle early on allowed for some faster cars to sneak through and get ahead. This left Blok in 4th closing down the leaders and fighting for the lead for the rest of the race. A late race caution came out, just after the overall leader in the Super Production Class passed Blok. When the green flag flew, a one lap shoot out to the end saw Blok end up losing 2 positions as 4^th through 6^th went 3 wide across the finish line, with less than 0.1 seconds separated all of three cars.

“Thanks to the entire Apex V2R crew for an amazing car, we were fast all weekend even in a track that did not really suit our car. With the points battle for 3rd being so close, the finale at Circuit ICAR is going to be intense!”

Blok’s next race weekend is August 27 at Circuit ICAR, Mirabel, Quebec.

Another podium finish and 3rd place in the Championship

MIRABEL, QUEBEC – After a coming off a podium finish at his home track at Calabogie in June, Nathan Blok and the APEX V2R racing team headed across the river to Complex ICAR at Mirabel, Quebec for the 7, 8 and 9^th rounds of the Super Production Challenge (SPC).

The last time Blok raced at ICAR was 10 years ago when he was competing in the Formula Tour 1600 where he won back to back championships.

Qualifying for the 36 entrants took place Saturday morning in sunny conditions where Blok qualified 3^rd in class.

The first 30 minute race of the weekend took place Saturday afternoon with the field lining up for a rolling start. Although starting in 3^rd position, Nathan had some trouble at the start of the race and fell back to 4^th position at the exit of corner 2. Being squeezed by Nelson Chan on one side and Sylvain Laporte on the other side of him, he ended up behind them both at the exit of corner 2.

On lap 2 going into corner 3, Nelson was on the inside and Kai Dalziel was on Nathan’s left. Nelson overshot the corner and when Kai made his corner entry, Nathan had his nose on the inside and the two cars made heavy contact. Kai continued on with body work damage, but Nathan’s alignment was seriously damaged and he had partial brake failure. To make matters worse, his engine went into safety mode which severely reduced his horsepower.

With 3 laps to go, despite his injured race car he passed Carlos Tesler-Mabe, however he was unable to make the pass stick. With two laps to go Sylvain pitted due to a tire issue and Nathan limped his car home to finish in 11^th.

“A bit of red mist with frustration of losing so many positions at the start led me to make a move largely out of character, and cost me valuable points, and I did the best I could to recover for the rest of the race.”

Thanks to the APEX V2R crew, Nathan’s car was repaired and they thought ready to go for morning practice. However, practice made it very evident that the car was still running in safety mode with gravely reduced horsepower. With the second race of the weekend scheduled to start in less than an hour, the crew frantically diagnosed and solved the issue with only minutes to spare.

Again starting in 3^rd for the standing start, Nathan fell back to 5^th on the exit of corner 1, but Sylvain, Nelson, Kai and Nathan were bumper to bumper and continued to battle it out over the next few laps competing for 2^nd place. Kai passed both Sylvain and Nelson, then Sylvain returned the favour by passing both Nelson and Kai. Nathan got into the action by passing Nelson, and the trio started to pull away from Nelson.

Nathan and Sylvain were battling it our for 4^th place, which allowed Kai who was in 3^rd place to slowly pull away.

With 2 laps to go Sylvain’s again had tire issues and Nathan pulled past to finish the race in 4^th place.

“I’m glad some redemption came my way shortly after, and I put on a respectable drive. Fortunately I got thrown a bone in the final laps with Sylvain’s tire puncture, and got a better result than expected.”

The final race started mid afternoon with Sylvain on pole, Owen Clarke 2^nd, Nathan 3^rd and Nelson 4^th.

Going into corner 2 Nathan moved into 2^nd place smoking up Sylvain’s bumper. Two laps later Owen passed both Nathan and Sylvain and then on the next lap Connor Bell did the same.

Nathan stayed on Sylvain’s bumper until about 1/2 way into the race when going into corner 1 Sylvain missed his breaking point trying to utilized a lap car and Nathan jumped on the opportunity and moved to the inside of Sylvain’s car to take over 3^rd place.

Continually pulling away for the rest of the race, Nathan brought his car home for a hard fought 3^rd place podium finish.

“I had a good fight all race again with Sylvain and again got the best results I could have asked for. “

“Overall, I had a very up and down weekend, but I think the team and I did the best job we could to limit the damage in the championship, and recover the most we could. We also got lucky with every driver from 2nd to 5th in the title race having some kind of problem, myself included that made the points gap very tight. With gp3r coming up, and the points race so close, things are almost guaranteed to get exciting between the concrete walls in a few weeks. I would like thank all my sponsors for their continued support.”

Despite having major problems on the race weekend, Nathan was still able to move up to 3^rd place in the championship

Blok’s next race weekend is August 5, 6 and 7 at the GP3R, Trois Rivieres, QC.

Podium at Calabogie Motorsports Park

Blok is no stranger to the 5.05 km Calabogie track, however both Nathan and the team realized that this would still be a challenging weekend given that although there are more corners at Calabogie, the long straights still favours his competitor cars with more horsepower.

Qualifying for the 42 entrants took place just before noon on Saturday in sunny conditions where Blok qualified 16^th overall and 3^rd in class.

The first and second 30 minute race of the weekend took place Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning respectively still under sunny conditions with the field lining up for the standing start. In both of these races Nathan put out a massive drive and was knocking at the podium for both of them, but unfortunately was only able to secure 4^th place for both races.

The final race of the weekend took place on Sunday afternoon, this time with Nathan starting in 5^th place in class. At the drop of the green flag Blok moved up into 3^rd position. Fighting for 2^nd spot he gets past #44 Kai Dalziel going into corner 1, then they go side-by-side through corner 2, with Dalziel squeaking past him coming out of corner 3. At the end of the straight #17 Joel Watts also gets past moving Nathan down into 5^th.

Just ahead a car spun and Dalziel was forced onto the grass to avoid hitting him, allowing Blok to get past both Dalziel and Watts regaining 2^nd place. At the next straight, Blok and #3 Suellio Almeida, Blok's teammate had a drag race for 1^st position with Blok securing the lead.

At the end of the straight going into corner 5 on Lap 4 saw # 55 Owen Clarke try unsuccessfully to pass on the outside. At corner 6, Clarke again tried an outside pass and again Blok successfully defended. The battle continued with Clarke getting ahead on the straight after corner 6, but Blok successfully takes back the lead on the inside. A few corners later at 12 Clarke makes another unsuccessful attempt, with Blok maintaining the lead going through the quarry. Heading on the the straight just before the start/finish line both cars were able to manoeuvre around a bumper that had fallen off a competitor.'s car

With the extra horsepower, Clarke was able to pull ahead of Blok after corner 4 on Lap 5 and then Dalziel overpowered him in the same spot on Lap 6. Although they would pull ahead on the straights Blok was able to make up the distance in the corners and was still in the hunt for a 2^nd place finish.

There was a full course yellow, so the bumper could be removed from the track. This put Blok at a disadvantage, allowing #45 Nelsen Chan and #50 Sylvain Laporte an opportunity to catch up to the field. When the green flag flew with only a few laps left, Blok was under immense pressure from both Chan and Laporte attempting passes at every opportunity. And after a cliff-hanging and monumental drive Blok came home with his first podium finish of the season, moving him from 8^th to 4^th in the championship.

“The start of Race 1 was actually quiet uneventful, but the battle I had with Nelson Chan at the end was lots of fun. Unfortunately he was able to catch and pass me. A few laps less and the results would have been far different.

Race 2 was quite uneventful. I was catching up to Kai in the last few laps, but some poorly timed lapped cars stopped me before I had time to get back and try to overtake him.

Race 3 however had so much happen, its hard to put it all in words. For a lot of that race I felt like I had a good chance of winning it, but settling for a podium with all the pressure I had behind me was still an amazing result.

Overall, seeing how much of a gap we closed from Canadian Tire Motorsport Park to Calabogie with only minor upgrades to the car, shows that we have the pace to fight for this championship. We aren't even half way, and with upgrades expected, the next race in ICAR we are expecting to take home a few race wins.

I would like to thank the crew for all their hard work and to thank my sponsors for their continued support Woody MVR, Arco Ltd, Sunsigns, H&H Construction, ENOES, Belder Tools, LAD’s Auto Recyclers, NAPA Pembroke and TD Products.”

Blok’s next race weekend is July 9 and 10 at the ICAR Complex, Mirabel, QC.

Challenging weekend at CTMP

Teaming up with the newly formed Ottawa based APEX V2R racing team this past Victoria Day weekend, 28-year old Nathan Blok returned to the track for the first time since 2019, wheeling a Scion FRS race car in the Production Class of the Super Production Challenge (SPC).

Given that the fast and challenging Canadian Tire Motorsport Park track favours cars with more horsepower, both Nathan and the team realized that this would be challenging weekend. The team are still doing engine development work as his engine was down 30 horse power from the other Production class competitors.

Qualifying for the 46 entrants took place in the early morning on Saturday in sunny conditions where Blok qualified mid field and 13^th in class.

Late Saturday morning the 30 minute race began under sunny conditions with the field lining up for the standing start. At the drop of the green Blok who was doing his first ever standing start race had managed to pass several cars by corner 2. On the Andretti straight 3 cars got into a collision and one car went off the track and into the barriers. This caused a red flag on Lap 2 as repairs were needed to the damaged barrier and the race was unable to resume.

Race 2 that was scheduled for 4:15 pm was cancelled due to the track being hit early afternoon with severe wind, rain, thunderstorms and a small tornado. One person was hit by lightning and another person broke an arm when the canopy he was holding on to lifted him up and then dropped him. There was over a million dollars of damage to vehicles, trailers, campers, etc. The APEX V2R team 40’ trailer was bent in the wind, causing the back door not to close. Fortunately, it was repairable and but there were 2 canopies damaged.

Mid morning on Sunday saw a wet track for Race 3 with a steady drizzling rain. With 40 cars starting the 30 minute race, the decision was made to have a traditional rolling start instead of a standing start for safety reasons. Again Blok started mid field and 13^th class.

Going into corner 1 Blok was running 3 cars wide and by corner 3 he had moved up from 13^th into 7^th position.   A full course yellow was waved as they entered corner 5, due to a crash at the start/finish line.

At the drop of the green flag on Lap 5 Blok passes Nelson Chan in his Mini Cooper, as directly in front of him Joel Watts and Shawn Greely came together with Watts spinning. Blok was forced to move right to miss the spinning car, nearly tagging the wall.

By corner 3 of lap 6 he passed two Super production cars and was on the bumper of Dalziel’s Scion. Blok passed him going down the straight moving up to 4^th position, but Daiziel remained right on Blok’s back bumper.

By corner 2 of Lap 7 Blok had caught up to Paul Gravel in his Mini Cooper, but was unable to make a pass. Going into corner 3 Daiziel makes it passed both Blok and Gravel, but Blok would have nothing of it and passed Gravel back on the left and then continued the charge by passing Daiziel on the exit of the corner, elevating him up to 3^rd place. Unfortunately by the end of the Andretti straight Gravel had pulled ahead of Blok again.

On corner 2 of Lap 8 Blok went wide, which allowed Daiziel to again get ahead. But not to be deterred, Blok continued on and by corner 5 he was back on his bumper.

On the exit of corner 5A, Daiziel goes to the inside and gets by Gravel as they exit the corner. Not to be discouraged, Gravel with Blok in tow, goes to the right of Daiziel and both Gravel and Blok make the pass.

Before corner 1 of Lap 9 Blok re-takes 4^th position from Gravel, but was force to back out of the pass when a Super Production car re-entered the track right in front of him.

On corner 3 Daiziel takes the outside of the corner and passes both Gravel and Blok.

With all 3 cars continuing to battle Blok passes Gravel as they exit corner 5. Then getting a run on Daiziel, Blok is able to get by, but then Gravel passes both of them at the end of the straight.

Exiting corner 2 of Lap 10 Daiziel gets by Blok on the outside. Going into corner 4 Blok takes back the position from Daiziel, who immediately re-takes Blok on the inside of corner 5. However, by the exit of the corner Blok is back ahead with Daiziel spinning off the track and hitting the wall while trying to defend his position.

The track was starting to develop a dry line which provided the front wheel drive cars a definite advantage and the reduced horsepower of Blok’s car was really starting to become evident in the performance, as Chan overtakes Blok for 5^th position on the Andretti straight.

Corner 5 on Lap 11 had Blok held up by a Super Production class car who had mechanical problems, which allowed Laporte to get by him on the inside, and then down the Andretti straight Greely gets by as well.

On the exit of corner 1 of Lap 12 Tesler-Mabe gets by Blok and later Lupien gets by on the Andretti straight. Positions stayed static until Lap 13 when the checkers flew with Blok finishing 9^th in class.

“We knew we needed a bit of luck to come our way due to our power problems, it's just unfortunate for everyone that it came in the form of a tornado. I did everything I could to recover from a weekend we were going to struggle in and I gave it my all, but on a drying track I wasn't going to be able to hold on to the positions I gained earlier in the race. The crew did an excellent job all weekend, and Calabogie should be a much stronger race for us. I want to thank my sponsors for their support Woody MVR, Arco Ltd, Sunsigns, H&H Construction, ENOES, Belder Tools, LAD’s Auto Recyclers, and TD Products.”

Blok’s next race weekend is June 4 and 5 at the Calabogie Motorsport Park. With the engine upgrade not anticipated to be completed until at least the 3^rd race weekend, the Calabogie event will also be a challenge.

Blok excited for the 2022 racing season

After a 2 year hiatus as a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic, Beachburg's Nathan Blok will be back behind the wheel of a race car again for 2022. The 27 year old has just signed for a full season in the production class of the Super Production Challenge with the newly formed Ottawa based Apex V2R racing team.

Driving along side Suellio Almeida, Blok hopes to lead the team to a championship on their debut, and a 4th championship for himself personally.

"It's very exciting to be back behind the wheel again, it's been a very long time out of the car. But, I haven't been sitting idly for 3 years. I've been doing coaching and lots of sim racing during the pandemic to keep my skills sharp.”

"I'm competing in SPC for one reason; I want another championship to my record. I'm not here for fun or to play games.

It will be my first full season campaign in 10 years, and 6 years since I won a championship. I have only competed in 4 full seasons since my career began at age 15, and I have won championships in 3 of them.”

“I have to thank all of my sponsors and partners (Woodys Motor Vehicle, ENOES, H&H Construction, Belder Tools, ARCO, TD Products, LAD’s Auto Recyclers and Sunsigns) for standing by my side & supporting me throughout the years. Now I just have to go and make it happen for all of them as well."

Nathan's first race in the SPC championship will take place at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park at the Victoria Day Speedfest on May 20-22.

APEX V2R announces driver line up for 2022 Super Production Challenge

1st and 2nd place finishes for Blok

RACE 1:  The 40 minute Race 1 started late afternoon and ran under sunny conditions.  At the drop of the green Blok #33 had an excellent start positioning his car on the inside of corner one.   Holding the inside and going 3 abreast through corner one, Blok persevered and took over the 1st place position.  

RACE 2:  Mid afternoon on Saturday, the CTCC cars returned to the track for the second 40 minute of the weekend.   The race saw Blok starting in 2nd, just missing the pole position by .038 seconds, based on the fastest lap from Race 1 .   Similar to Race 1, at the start Blok passed Staikos #6 for the lead through corner 1, with  Tom Kwok #55 pushing forward into 1st place in corner 3.   As if it was deja vu, Blok again took back the lead going down the Andretti straight and then started to pull away.

The perfect weekend - Three 1st place finishes

RACE 1:  The 25 minute Race 1 ran under sunny conditions.  At the drop of the green Blok still getting familiar with the car added too much power creating wheel spin and allowing Fletcher to edge past him going into corner 1.  Blok stayed right on his bumper through to the hairpin at Moss corner, until Fletcher took advantage of his 300+HP difference and pulled away on him down the straight stretch.

RACE 2:  Early Sunday morning the GT Sprint/Challenge cars returned to a green track for Race 2 after a steady rain the night before.  The race saw Blok starting on pole as the starting grid was based on Race 1 results.   This time when the green flag flew, Blok was ready and easily took the lead opening up a gap by the hairpin at Corner 5.  However by the end of the Andretti straight going into Corner 8 #111 Terry Fletcher and #601 Leigh Pettipas in his T1 800 HP Corvette were on Blok's bumper.

RACE 3:  So with no power steering, Blok took up his pole position behind the pace car for the 20 minute race.  The end of Lap 2 saw #125 Blok pulling away from top three T1 cars who were sporting a 300 HP plus advantage; #601 Leigh Pettipas, #01 Bart Slot and #111 Terry Fletcher.

By Lap 4 Fletcher had moved from 4th up to 2nd place and by Lap 7 had gained enough on Blok to make a pass on the inside of Corner 8 taking the lead from Blok.  On Lap 8 Corner 5 saw Blok attempting to re-take the lead first on the outside of 5a and then on the inside of 5b but was unable to make it stick.

Fletcher and Blok sped bumper to bumper past the start/finish line overtaking a lap car on Corner 2.   Blok moved to the inside of Corner 3 as Fletcher went wide and ran off the track.  Making his way back on to the track Fletcher takes up the chase after Blok but unfortunately by Corner 8 of Lap 10 he went off the track again, this time hitting the wall and ending his race.

Blok continued on wrestling with the power steering until Lap 15 when he took the checkered flag 17.9 seconds ahead of 2nd place overall and 54 seconds ahead in class for his 3rd win of the weekend.  

This made for a perfect weekend:   3 pole positions, 3 first place finishes and fastest lap of the weekend!

“I've driven many challenging races in my career, but Sunday's finale was easily the most physically challenging I have ever done.  Terry (Fletcher) and I raced each other very hard and very clean all weekend and having the pressure behind me for the entire last race made my difficult task harder than it already was.  I owe a big thanks to Blaise Csida and the BC Race Cars team.  They gave me an excellent handling car, worked to fix the power steering pump right up until that last possible moment.  I owe a big thank you to my sponsors who stepped at the last moment to ensure a successful weekend: Woodys MVR, Certified Labs, SunSign Graphics, Belder Tool, H&H Construction, McMillans Transmission, TD Products and auctionacar.ca.

Double Podium finish at CMP

Blok now set his sights on Wojceichowski, and by Corner 11 of Lap 5 makes the pass for the lead.  Once Blok had secured a comforable lead he settled in to a rhythm for the rest of the race and brought home the 1st place trophy and the lead in the CTCC series.

Podium finish for Blok in CTCC Series

Top 5 Finish in IMSA Prototype Lites Debut

Blok geared up for IMSA Prototype Lites Season

Blok crowned 2015 F2000 Canada Champion

Blok solidifies Championship lead at Bay of Quinte

Rounds 9 & 10 are scheduled for August 29 and 30 at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park and Nathan is hoping to be able to secure enough funding to allow him to maintain his lead in the championship.

Bay of Quinte Grand Prix

Blok secures 2nd Victory in F2000 Championship

Blok Victorious in First F2000 Canada Race

Blok attends "Canada Day in the Bay"

2015 F2000 Championship