GRC: Ken Block keeps on keepin’ on

For 2015, Ken Block will be competing in the Global Rallycross Championship, select Rally America rounds, a handful of international rallies, the Gymkhana GRID finals in Europe and some international Gymkhana demos. So reads the boilerplate of the press releases and race reports that Ken Block and the Hoonigan Racing Division put out. Certainly a man on the go, it can be argued that Block and company are the hardest working men in motorsports. Currently up to their noses in a radically eclectic racing and exhibition schedule which sees the contingent globetrotting from place to place and stage to stage, it’s hard to get the Californian to stand still in one place. But we managed it a few days after he won the most recent round of the Red Bull Global Rallycross Series:

Ken, you just won the Red Bull Global Rallycross Championship round at MCAS New River in Jacksonville, North Carolina. You’re two for four now in the series. As far as that property goes, is all going to plan?

Yeah, the last two years in GRC I won the most heats out of anyone, I was the fastest average qualifier, but I just haven’t been able to put it together for an actual championship win. Last year I came within five points of the championship win, so that felt really good. This year I just really wanted to take everything that we’ve learned and hopefully put it together to hopefully come away with the title. So far it’s gone our way. The thing about Rallycross is that there is definitely a good amount of skill involved, but there’s also a bit of luck and that’s a bit frustrating on the driver’s end sometimes, but we also know that’s what makes our series so exciting to watch for our fans. I’m very happy with the way the first part of the season has gone and hopefully I can that going for the rest of the year.

As far as luck goes, that’s racing, isn’t it?

Yeah, I mean that is just motorsports, you know? The best guy doesn’t always win every race and that’s just the way it is. You just have to accept that as a driver. Two years ago I was the fastest qualifier and I kept getting knocked out at the first turn and somebody else kept winning everything and it was really frustrating. But the series continues to get better, the events are really done well and the drivers and cars continue to get better and better. I’m glad to be at the front end of that field and hopefully I can continue this streak of good luck and hopefully it averages out at the

end of the year. My team and I are working exceptionally hard and it’s paying off and hopefully we can keep it going.

You’re known for your very popular Gymkhana-themed videos and numerous other motorsports exploits, but more recently you’ve appeared to be concentrating upon competition. Would you agree?

Yeah, absolutely. I’ve been able to do a lot of fun things with my schedule every year from Gymkhana events and videos. I really do have one of the most unique and fun schedules of any racecar driver in the world, but really, I’ve worked very hard over the past 10 years to be the best driver I could possibly be. I feel like I have the talent and I feel like I’ve been robbed of some championships because of some bad luck but that doesn’t mean we’re going to stop trying. We’re still trying just as hard as ever, it’s just that every year my team and I get more and more experience and we apply it better and better. Hopefully this year we’ll come away with the championship, but you never know.

I know you think highly of the FIA World Rallycross Championship. Would you like to see the GRC and WRX combined?

I can’t really comment on the unification. I feel like there’s multiple ways to make championships and series work, but the main thing for me really is to just to see the sport grow. It’s a great way to use these amazing cars. The Ford Fiesta I race is incredible. It works amazing for Rally and works incredible for Rallycross and for the Gymkhana stuff, too. However I can go out and use it, I want to see it done the best way possible.

Stage rallying is actually doing quite well right now; there’s a good amount of manufacturers out there racing in the WRC right now, but I think the Rallycross stuff really has a lot of room to grow. It’s taking the amazing capabilities of these cars that work so well in stage rally and bringing them in and allowing them to race door to door in a place where people can come in and drink a beer and watch a bunch of races and a main event in a couple hour span of time. I think it really works, especially for the American consumer who is so used to seeing motorsports, and events in general, done that way. What works in Europe doesn’t always work in the States, so I think the two separate organizations could work together in the long run, or maybe it all works better separately because they can focus a bit more on the consumers that are slightly different in the two different regions.

You raced a host of WRX events last year and did real well. However, it looks like you do not have any WRX races schedules this year. Could that change?

I really enjoyed doing the WRX events last year. The World Rallycross Championship goes to a lot more places where there are permanent rallycross tracks. Rallycross has been around in Europe for a long time, so they have great permanent tracks that have built-in jumps and cambered turns and are in settings where fans can see a lot of the track. That’s great and I really appreciate that and I’d like to do more of it.

Global Rallycross here in the States is based more on locations where they have to build their own track in a lot of cases. It’s not as ideal, but I think that as the sport grows in the long run, hopefully there will be some permanent tracks built and we’ll have the same situation here that we do over in Europe. We’ll just have to see how that progression goes. The great thing is that both of the series are doing quite well and hopefully we’ll get even better tracks both in Europe and here in the States.

It can be argued that young men in the United States are not really all that interested in auto racing. I don’t believe IndyCar has had much influence on them, nor has NASCAR and certainly not Formula 1. It would be cool to see American kids into car racing and I really think Rallycross has the opportunity to make that happen. Thoughts?

I think we’re seeing big paradigm shifts with a

lot of things. The way that consumers see media and look at everything from events to races to championships – be basketball or racing – is just different. There is so much competition today for the consumer’s attention compared to 30 or 40 years ago. Motorsports, especially, either needs to change and adjust to that or some of these championships may just go away and I think that’s why Rallycross actually really does kind of work. You have these short bursts of races – kind of like supercross – where you have a build-up of events to get to a main event. That’s exactly how Rallycross works. So instead of sitting down and having to watch a three-hour race, you’re watching 10 races that build up to one main race. I really feel that it is quite a great format to appeal to the younger generation that’s coming up. It’s exciting to watch; it’s a short format; you’ve got some great personalities involved; and they’re racing vehicles that fans can relate to.

IndyCar...you know I think that the open-wheel cars are beautiful pieces of art, but I think it’s a bit harder for a 16-year-old kid who is looking forward to driving to relate to that vehicle. The Ford Fiesta that I drive is closely related to the car that’s available on the showroom floor.

Speaking of multiple forms of motor racing, you just got back from the Goodwood Festival of Speed. "Flat-out and Fearless: Racing on the Edge" was the theme of the event this year. Pretty appropriate for you and your burly Hoonicorn Mustang, huh?

It was the third time that I had been to Goodwood and every time I go I just absolutely love it. It’s a unique car show and it’s set in an absolutely beautiful part of England. You see cars there that I absolutely love, from old and new F1 cars, old and new rally cars. You have MotoGP bikes, you have just incredible machinery. And on top of that you have guys like Valentino Rossi, Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg, B.J. Baldwin, Casey Stoner. You have just a crazy mix of guys. That makes a great atmosphere with all the great cars and athletes who are there.

But the real thing that sets that event apart from everywhere else in the world that has car shows is the fact that there’s a road there and those cars get driven up this road. There’s guys going for speed and there’s guys showing off cars by doing burnouts and donuts; they’re there to have cars and motorcycles seen and heard. You see B.J. Baldwin tear up that hill in his truck and then shortly after that Nico Rosberg goes up in an older Formula 1 car. It’s just something that you can’t really see or experience anywhere else in the world that I know of.

That Mustang of yours is really beloved around the world now, isn’t it? It’s such Americana…

Yes, very much so. And Lord March, the man that owns the property and puts on the event, loves Americana and loves Mustangs. He was really happy to have me there, He even took a ride with me up the hill on Sunday morning and he doesn’t usually take rides with people. He and I get along quite well and he’s just a huge fan of what I do and the cars I have so it was cool to be able to take him out.

And with your remarkably eclectic racing/exhibition schedule, you were even able to slot in a few traditional stage rally events this year. In fact, you’ll now go straight to the New England Forrest Rally which is set to be held next weekend, correct?

Yeah, I love rally and stage rally is where I come from and I will always have some stage rally events in my calendar no matter what. I just truly love that form of racing, but nowadays it isn’t really the main championship that I’m out racing. Every day I’m dealing with rallycross. This year I was able to fit in four stage rally events that I just really wanted to go do. Two of them were in New Zealand earlier this year. Now I’ve got two Rally America events coming up and one is in a week and a half. It’s the New England Forrest Rally, which I won the last time I was there two years ago. I’m looking to go back and win again, but I’m also working with M-Sport to show off two of their new cars that they sell for racing around the world and in national championships. Those cars are the R5 and the R2. They’re both really good cars built on the Ford Fiesta platform. We’re bringing them over with M-Sport for the first time to see how well the cars can do here.

You do quite a bit for Ford, don’t you?

Ford has been able to work and integrate with me in amazing ways. I’ve enjoyed working with them to promote the racing side of things, the production car side of things, and even trucks with the Raptor. It’s been quite fun. And last year they brought me in to help them develop the new Focus RS, which is a production vehicle. It’s the first time I’ve actually been involved with a production side of things. That’s really a dream come true working with a company like Ford to help develop performance production cars that are actually on the road. Very, very cool.