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.