2023 in motorsport started very badly: on the morning of January 3, sad news came from Utah about the death of Ken Block.
Ken drove a snowmobile in the area of the picturesque Mill Hollow reservoir, but the time of the descent from the mountain turned over – the equipment fell and crushed the rider, and he died on the spot from his injuries.
Blok had an amazing career. A quick look at the statistics will not tell anything to an outsider – yes, he competed in rallies, yes, he was good, but without great achievements: several points in the WRC, victories in certain stages in the American championships, prizes in the global rallycross championship, but no championship titles.
His sporting successes did not pull on the status of legendary. And yet, for millions of people, Blok was on a par with the great racers.
It’s about Jimhan, a stunt show that Ken originally conceived as an advertisement for his own shoe brand, DC Shoes.
It suddenly turned out that you can watch something related to rally cars not only live somewhere on country roads, but also sitting in a comfortable armchair in front of the monitor or on the couch in front of the TV.
In 2008, Blok released the first video in which he furiously burned tires around fences on a specially equipped track on his Subaru. The video quickly became popular (it has more than 16 million views to date) and prompted the rider to shoot sequels. The second part has already collected 50 million views, the third – almost 70.
In total, Ken produced 10 videos with a total number of views of about 600 million, drove in San Francisco, Los Angeles and even Dubai, and at the same time tried other things – for example, in 2022, he drove around Las Vegas in an Audi electric car. “.
In parallel with the release of incendiary videos, Block continued to race in big competitions – in rallycross and X-Games (he claimed victory in the overall standings, but every time something prevented him from achieving his main success).
Gymkhana, on the other hand, went beyond YouTube – in 2010, Blok managed to organize the Gymkhana Grid race, which many popular racers like Tanner Faust, Nani Roma, Peter Solberg or Johan Kristoffersson went with pleasure. The founder of the discipline also did not get lost against the backdrop of tough competitors – he won the race in 2014, but later the Scandinavians began to dominate it.
