Ken Block's ability to connect with his fanbase defied the conventionalities of motorsport. TommyHoward, together with Petter and Oliver Solberg, remember the late WRC visionary.
"Passion sometimes is perhaps more important than winning all the time," said 2003 World Rally champion Petter Solberg when asked during an Autosport podcast last week to sum up the career of the late Ken Block, who died aged 55 in a snowmobiling accident.
It's perhaps fair to say that when Block is mentioned, the first thought for many is the sight of a tyre-squealing rally car performing insane stunts amid a wall of tyre smoke. While these daredevil moves helped Block transcend the motorsport crowd to become a household name after garnering hundreds of millions of views through his successful Gymkhana YouTube series, he was much more than a stunt driver and a showman.
"Ken was an incredible man," explains Solberg, a close friend of Block and who raced alongside him in WRC and World Rallycross."He had an enormous passion for motorsport. He worked very hard to be good and he had a fantastic career. We have all learned a lot from him. He achieved by thinking outside of the box. I think in rallycross he really impressed and did really well with his technical driving in Gymkhana events.
"He did so much for the sport and I think the sport didn't use him enough for what he was capable of. It was not about the money all the time, it was all about the vision and dreams, and everything else will sort itself after" Motorsport Images "He did so much for the sport and I think the sport didn't use him enough for what he was capable of. It was not about the money all the time, it was all about the vision and dreams, and everything else will sort itself after. He created many friends and a level of marketing that people can only dream about."
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