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Blok takes revenge to secure first win of the season
Rounds 3 and 4 of the Super Production Challenge left Nathan Blok with a wide range of results and emotions. The 30 year old from Beachburg, Ontario driving the #88 Futec Motorsports powered by Shellbourne Fuels entered the third round of the season at the Grand Prix de Trois Rivieres 4th in the standings, and only 50 points behind the championship leader, Guillaume Labee.
With the weather initially looking to favour the rear wheel drive Nissan 370z, the forecast rapidly turned when hurricane Debby made landfall early Friday morning, handing the advantage back to Blok's competition. In the Friday evening race, Blok’s windshield fogged up and condensed dramatically forcing him even having to pit to clean the windshield. As a result he rapidly fell from 4th place to last.
Starting in 15th and last for the second of three races, Blok picked off the competition one by one, and by lap 8 found himself in 2nd place behind Trois Rivieres native Marc Geroux just before a lengthy caution. The restart would see a one lap dash to the checkered flag. Blok got a perfect restart and overtook Heroux on the final lap to cross the line in first. However, Blok would receive a post race penalty for pulling out of single file line coming to the restart.
Disappointed but determined, Blok would line up in fourth position for the final race of the weekend, but on the 3rd lap, another competitor made contact with him on the run to turn 5, causing Blok to have a major accident into the concrete wall at 160km/h. Blok was uninjured, but the car had major repair work needed, and only a 2 week turnaround to the sundown GP. In only 9 days, the crew put in over 160 hours collectively to repair the car, only finished hours before needing to pack up to travel to the next race weekend at Mirabel, Quebec.
Blok would qualify 2nd with the top four
being separated by under one tenth of a second. At lights out, he
would pass Gabriel Lacombe for the lead on the third corner, and then
never looked
back. Thirty
minutes later, he
would take his
first
official win of the season. Starting the final race of the weekend in
5th, Blok
had moved his way up to the lead by lap 9 and was cruising home to
take his first clean sweep in over 10 years. However,
on lap 17 the
radiator cap broke, dramatically covering the track with water and
ending his race .
"In the last 3 weeks I've had a range of emotions from euphoria, rage, and relief. The crash, losing the teams first win, then the crew pulling off a genuine miracle to fix the car in 9 days to come back to win again was all something straight out of a Hollywood script. The repairs were not enough to have the car running at its optimal, but we pushed through and won anyways. The rad cap coming off has now realistically taken me out of the championship for good this time, and our focus is already on development for 2025. But there is still a chance to take a podium in the championship in Calabogie, and I'm not going down without a fight".
"A special thanks goes out to all the crew, Lad's Auto Recylers, Sunsign Graphics and Shellbourne Fuels for helping to repair the car."
Blok
still remains 4th in the standings. And the SPC season will be
concluded at Calabogie Motorsports Park on September 27th to 29th.
Double Podium on 1st race weekend - Super Production Challenge
After a long and busy off season, Nathan Blok returned to the Super Production Challenge with a lighter, faster, and improved Futec Motorsports car for another championship assault in the Super Production Challenge (SPC).
Beginning the season at the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Bowmanville, Blok laid down the gauntlet early by taking his first pole position in SPC by 0.6 seconds over 2nd place Guillaume Labbe.
In Race 1 after the standing start, Blok faced some early opposition from Labbe before pulling out a gap, and maintaining a small lead in front of a seven car strong pack at the front. By lap 17, unfortunate timing with lap traffic and a loss of power due to a recurring fuel problem caused Blok to drop to 3rd with one lap to go. On the last lap, the lack of power allowed Kurt Wittmer to overtake him entering turn 8. But indeterred Blok attempted a daring pass around the outside, forcing a photo finish for 3rd place with Blok trumping Wittmer by 6 hundredths of a second at the finish line.
Starting 3rd for Race 2, With clouds and rain overhead, Blok would see the power issues again return at the halfway point of the race, causing him to drop to 4th by the chequered flag.
The 3rd and final race of the weekend would see the random grid inversion putting Blok in 6th for the start. Blok passed Mario Charette and Gabriel Lacombe in the opening lap before a lengthy full course caution bunched up the field. On the restart, Blok immediately took full advantage, passing Shawn Bernier for 3rd by putting 2 wheels in the grass entering turn 3, before another full course yellow occurred. The race ended under a full course yellow.
"This is a complete turnaround from last year. We're already fast and competitive, have good pace, and showed it all weekend. The Futec Motorsports car powered hy Shellbourne Fuels does have some recurring gremlins which need sorting, but we have the pace to take a shot at the championship this season once we can sort out our long run pace. We definitely have the best, and most dedicated team in the paddock, and I’m certain we can keep the good results rolling into Calabogie".
Blok;s
next race weekend is June 22-23 at the Calabogie Motorsport Park and
he goes into it running 3rd in the championship.
2023 Super Production Challenge season comes to a close!
SO CLOSE, YET SO FAR
Setting the 6th fastest time in race 1 with the top 7 places on the grid being inverted, Blok would line up on the front row. After being engaged in a race long battle with Todd Chiappino and Guillaume Labbe for 2nd place, an issue with the differential saw Nathan lose performance with 5 laps to go and although he fought hard, he was only able to muster up a 5th place finish.
We have a plan to work on the differential, and looks like the finale at Complexe ICAR at the end of the month will be our last shot to get a podium and a win in 2023.
CONTINUING THE FORWARD MOMENTUM
Photo's : @cameron_forsythe7 @missmotorsportcoach @s_blok
NATHAN BLOK AND FUTEC MOTORSPORT SPC DEBUT
Futec Motorsports debut to the Super Production Challenge was met with a fair share of new team jitters to he shaken down after the opening 2 rounds to the season.
Event
number 1 saw three time Canadian champion Nathan Blok behind the
wheel for the Victoria day Speed Fest at Canadian Tire Motorsport
Park (Mosport). After some problems with brake management and some
fuel concerns arose during testing, the crew pulled an all night
operation in the pouring rain to get Blok on track. Despite missing
qualifying and starting at the back of the 17 car grid in heavy rain
conditions, Blok made an incredible drive to finish 8th in the first
event, and 7th in the second. The inverted grid would see Blok
starting 3rd for the final event. Unfortunately he lost 5th gear on
the opening lap, and was forced to retire after 5 laps.
After
having the transmission replaced 2 weeks later for the second round
at Shannonville Motorsports Park, the 38 degree weather would see the
Futec 370z deal with overheating issues along with all the other
Nissans competing in the Super Production class. Some overnight fixes
to cool the car, and cool weather helped to relieve the overheating
problems. Starting in 9th, Blok made an excellent drive in race 1 to
finish 8th on track after winning a race long battle with 2 time
champion Olivier Bedard, but was penalized for a camera malfunction,
dropping him back down to 9th.
The
inverted grid for race 2 had Futec Motorsports first pole position.
At the drop of the green, Blok stormed off into a commanding lead for
the first 2 laps, before the fuel starvation issues from Mosport
reared it ugly head again causing him to retire from the race. With
the issue fixed i Blok head back to the track for the final race of
the weekend. However the fuel gremlins appeared once again causing
Blok to fall back to 14th.
Not willing to give up despite the continuing issue Blok climbed his
way up the grid to recover for an 8th place finish.
"We
have had anticipated difficulties with the car, but that is to be
expected in any new team. Every race weekend, every session, every
lap we have gotten faster and more efficient. The crew has been
working tirelessly to get things up and running, and I'm excited for
the rest of the season. The growing pains are slowly coming to an
end, and now we can work at extracting the full potential from the
car to build upon the flashes of success we have been showing".
Blok’s next race weekend is July 7, 8, 9 at the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Bowmanville.
Futec Motorsports Quick Facts: Futec Motorsports founded in 2023 is owned and operated by Nathan Blok. The team is currently running a 2009 Nissan 370Z in the Super Production Challenge engineered by Maxime Vadeboncoeur (www.simplyfast.ca), and is planning on participating in several Lucky Dog races this season.
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
12th
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
3rd
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 3rd
in class. A terrible start dropped Blok down to 9th position before
the end of the 3rd lap. He made his way up to 7th
place before the race was ended early due to a drunk spectator who
had somehow made his way onto the track.
The
3rd
race of the weekend on Sunday saw Blok starting 2nd.
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 4th
through 6th
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 9th 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 3rd
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 3rd
position, Nathan
had some trouble at the start of the race and fell back to 4th
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 11th.
“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 3rd
for the standing start, Nathan
fell back to 5th
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 2nd
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 4th
place, which allowed Kai who was in 3rd
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 4th
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
2nd,
Nathan 3rd
and Nelson 4th.
Going
into corner 2 Nathan moved into 2nd
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 3rd
place.
Continually
pulling away for the rest of the race, Nathan brought his car home
for a hard fought 3rd
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 3rd 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 16th
overall and 3rd
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 4th
place for both races.
The
final race of the weekend took place on Sunday afternoon, this time
with Nathan starting in 5th
place in class. At the drop of the green flag Blok moved up into 3rd
position. Fighting for 2nd
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 5th.
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 2nd
place. At the next straight, Blok and #3 Suellio Almeida, Blok's
teammate had a drag race for 1st
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 2nd 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 8th
to 4th
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 13th
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
13th
class.
Going into corner 1 Blok was running 3 cars wide and by corner 3 he had moved up from 13th into 7th 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 4th
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 3rd
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
4th
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 5th
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 9th
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 3rd
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.
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
Sunday came again with very humid weather and rain threatening on the horizon. With no new slick tires for Sunday available in Blok's budget, the best he could do was to qualify 7th out of 8th in class and 12th out of 18 overall. As luck would have it, one of Blok's local sponsor's “Woody's Motor Vehicle Repair” was in attendance and wanting Blok to have a fighting chance for the final race purchased him a new set of tires. This put Blok on a level playing field going into the final race on the 5.05 km long track.
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.
To have yet another good weekend at home and to bring home a debut win and the lead in the championship for the team was a very fulfilling and successful accomplishment. There was a lot of drama in the background and even getting to race this weekend was a special opportunity and to come home with a 1st and 2nd place just makes everything that happened leading up to this event feel worthwhile.
A huge thanks to all my sponsors and everyone who put their support behind me and believed in me. I was honoured to do my job and deliver everyone the results that they wanted. “