Everyone – thanks to the global media phenomenon known as YouTube – knows who Ken Block is – or do they?
Like most other Talk Motorsport readers (I’d imagine) I first became aware of Block and his status as pin-up boy (man?) for Millennial motorsport fans via Facebook friends who shared his first ‘Gymkhana 1’ video on YouTube with me (way) back in 2008.
Then he was that most unlikely of things; an up-and-coming US-based rally driver trying to put a fresh spin (pun intended!) on that most unfashionable of motorsport disciplines, ‘gymkhana.’
That’s not quite true. As the co-founder of skate footwear brand DC Shoes, the only unlikely thing about Block was his choice of hobby.
Block is that most likely of things, a US entrepreneur who from small beginnings turned a good idea into a global business which had revenues of $US100 million when he and partner Damon Way sold it to Quicksilver for $US87 million in 2004.
The pair then stayed on with the company as Quicksilver ramped up production, sales and revenues to $US1 Billion. At which point Block started taking his rallying passion more seriously and came up with the idea of the Gymkhana series.
The first five were unashamed promos for DC Shoes, where Block continued to earn a no doubt handsome retainer plus talent fees as a brand strategist.
Looking back at them now (which you can do by clicking on this link below), there’s more than a whiff of cheese in the scripting and editing.
At the same time though there’s equal amounts of savvy and suss, as well as a passion for pop culture (the burning man in Gymkhana 3) and motorsport history (using the famously steep 51-degree banking on the Montlhery oval just outside Paris in Gymkhana 2).
There was also a (at the time controversial) move from Subaru WRX to a Ford Focus between Gymkhana 1 @ 2 plus a move from DC Shoes as primary backer and beneficiary to video game Need for Speed between #s 5 @ 6 then on to Block’s latest business venture, apparel company Hoonigan for #7, Ford Performance for #8 and back to Hoonigan for #s 9 @ 10.
Along the way Block has built up some serious driving skills, which have enabled him to contest WRC Rally, World Rally Cross and even events here (he won the International Rally of Whangarei in 2015).
Which is what prompted me to make Block and his exploits behind wheel and camera the subject of this week’s column.
Again, that’s not quite right. What really prompted me to write about Block this week was a video he has only recently loaded to YouTube. This one is part of a series following the now 51-year-old as he spends a year ticking off a bucket list of sorts driving a refurbished and thoroughly upgraded Ford Escort Cosworth in various different events around the world (which you can watch here https://www.hoonigan.com/blogs/shows/ken-blocks-cossie-world-tour).
It’s easy for any of us, of course, to get a little cynical when someone as seriously coined up as Block starts appearing in his own promo videos.
Certainly, the numbers are compelling if you have something to sell. Gymkhana 3 – 65M (where the big M is short for million!!) views, Gymkhana 5, a frankly incredible 100,849, 278 (i.e. 100M) views, even a bonus video of outtakes, 8.3M views.
That, as an old mate of mine who loves using buzzwords, would nod, and say knowingly ‘is a lot of eyeballs,’ which in me, starts raising B/S flags. This time though I’m prepared to cut the ‘man behind the phenomenon’ a little slack. For several reasons.
- 1/ The bugger can drive
- 2/ I ‘get’ his goofball (the closest an American is ever going to get to self-deprecating) humour, and
- 3/ He loves New Zealand, and positively raves about the quality of our roads.
His is no typical ‘once-over-lightly’ Vlogger love either. The first thing he did on arriving here to prepare for his Cossie World Tour run in Whangarei, in fact, was not upload a cheeky selfie to his Instagram account, or get an Uber straight to his hotel room, so he could freshen up before heading into the city to sample the nightlife.
Oh no.
The minute he and his ‘entourage’ had loaded up their two Ford NZ-supplied Ranger Raptors he made a special point of going way out of his way so that he could finally tick ‘checking out the famous Motu’ road’ off his personal bucket list.
OK, so their first port of call was Rotorua for some MTBing on the Skyline downhill course and – later – in the Redwoods. So, they were heading in ‘the general direction’ anyway.
However, you could tell Block was genuine in his respect and reverence for ‘the Motu’ when he spoke with eloquence and dignity about what it meant to him, and why.
And I quote;
“We’re stopped here on Motu Rd, which is a little way into (what was) the Motu Stage on the East Coast of the North Island. This road is legendary in WRC Championships. In 1994 Colin McRae set the record for it and it was last used in 1996. It is very long, very technical (and considered) a classic WRC road.
“So famous is it, that Derek Ringer, Colin McRae’s co-driver at the time, dug the notes out be had made with Colin of the road, and put them up for auction, and there were people who, like, were prepared to pay a lot of money for those notes.
“I know because I was one of those people bidding on them, but I was bidding against the likes of David Richards, the guy who owned Pro Drive, the company that Colin was driving for in those days.
“I’d always wanted to bring those notes here and drive through the stage with them. But like I had to stop putting my hand up!”
Block then explains why McRae’s winning run through the stage in 1994 was both so quick and so special, before debating with his ever-present videographer what it is about the Motu – and other storied rally stage roads in this country – that make them so special to someone to a student of the sport such as himself.
“It’s just one of the legendary roads,” Block starts, before being interrupted by old mate behind the camera.
“So, it’s like ‘our’ Brickyard, or the Mulsanne straight at Le Mans,” he offers.
“Yeah/nah,” says Block’s body language as he considers this then effortlessly nails both the similarities and differences between conventional ‘circuit-based motor racing,’ and the discipline which is obviously closer to his heart, and which he continually refers to as ‘special stage rallying, rather than just ‘rallying’ the way we do.
“That’s one of the things about stage rallies which make them different,” he starts. “What we are talking about are actual roads out in the countryside, and the characteristics of these roads that make them so special.
“The roads here in New Zealand are some of the best roads in the world…and it is because of the way they build them – the way the camber rolls from corner to corner – because there is a lot of rain here.
“This road (the Motu) was not built to be a racetrack, yet here we are talking about the characteristics of it as if it were; which are that it’s very technical, very long and……………very cool to be here!”
True, he is not saying anything particularly new or even insightful. What is so refreshing about what and how Block says, is that he is – at the moment anyway – one of the four-wheel world’s most followed and most viewed ‘influencers’ yet he chose to come here of his own volition and talk up a piece of road which few people outside rally circles (even here in NZ) are aware of.
As a kid growing up here I know I was always quick to dismiss what was special about my country of birth; in part because in those days we were fed a steady diet of how awesome and exotic events, circuits and stages were in the UK, Europe, and to a point, the US were.
Now – finally – thanks to the likes of Ken Block the tide appears finally to be turning.
So, a big ‘on ya’ from me mate. And if it means I have to buy a Hoonigan T-Shirt or pair of DC shoes, it’s a (very) small price to pay for putting us on both the world motorsport map, and radar of rally (and now obviously, gymkhana) fans everywhere!
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