Podium at home track of Calabogie
It was a dramatic second round of the Super Production challenge for the Futec Motorsports team. After having to endure round 1 with a borrowed right rear shock, the car was back at full strength for the teams first home race at Calabogie Motorsports Park.
The
Friday
testing
day proved fruitful with Nathan
Blok
setting lap times consistently fastest throughout the day. However,
this time it would be Mother
Nature
that would spoil plans for a hometown win with heavy rain forecasted
throughout the weekend. Due to the 370z being rear wheel drive, the
370z would be at an inherit disadvantage in the rain against
the front wheel drive competition.
Qualifying
ended with Blok
down in 7th, but 10 seconds per lap off the pole sitter
Kurt
Wittmer. With torrential rain and standing water across the track,
the first race of the weekend got underway. Two
minutes into the race, the windshield began fogging up so bad that
Nathan had to wipe the windshield from the inside at 180km/hr
just to see where he was going. After a long and difficult race he
would finish in 6th.
The
following morning, race 2 would begin in slightly drier conditions,
but still considerably wet. Starting in 6th Blok
would overtake Gabriel Lacombe on the 2nd lap, then would proceed to
have a race long battle with Shelby Mills
for 5th place, ultimately finishing in 6th. Several hours later, the
clouds dispersed
and the sun came out just
before
race 3, however with a storm cell looming from the southwest.
Starting in
5th,
Race
3 began with Blok
managing
to pass Marc Heroux
on the first lap. Several laps later Blok
was able to overtake Todd
Chiappino and Kurt Wittmer for 3rd and 2nd before a power loss issue cost Blok straight line speed. After a lap of nursing the car & trying to fix the problem on the fly, the issue went away as he caught the leading car, Guillaume Labbe and took the lead for 1st place, just as the storm cell reached the track bringing out a full course yellow. Fearing dropping to mid pack again on the new track conditions, Blok defended the inside entering turn 1 on the restart, but Labbe and Chiappino made a better start and Blok understeered into Chiappino going into the first corner damaging Blok’s splitter. Trying to salvage a decent result on the weekend, Blok managed to stay on track just long enough to bring home a fortunate but unlikely 3rd place finish for the conditions.
"As
soon as I saw the forecast I knew it would be a weekend of damage
limitations as far at the championship was concerned. I did not
expect a podium finish this weekend, and we took a gamble on a dry
setup in the final race to get to the front then defend until the end
that fortunately paid off. The Futec car powered by Shellbourne
Fuels
was great all weekend and the team did a great job to keep in
contention even with the weather stacked against us".
Blok
currently sits 4th place in the standings and will be competing at
the Grand
Prix de Trois
Rivieres
on August 9-11.