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.
