Ken Block

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He tackled his first Rally America Championship in 2005, and has tackled each season since driving an 'open' class Subaru Impreza WRX STi. He won 'Rookie of the year' in 2005 and was the series runner-up in 2006, but outright success has eluded him up to now. Alongside his Rally America programme, he has also starred in the rally driving competition held each year at the American X-Games extreme sports tournament.

Not content with just stage-based rally driving, however, Block also wanted to have a different kind of fun with his car. And this was more than a few donuts in a field. In 2007 he jumped his Subaru 171 feet for the Discovery Channel's show Stunt Junkies. This turned out to be just the start of turning unconventional locations into his rally car playground.

In 2007, as part of a DC Shoes video, Block slid and jumped his rally car on snow alongside pro-snowboarders at New Zealand's SnowPark. The session resulted in an Snowboarder Magazine cover shot featuring Block jumping his rally car alongside a pro-snowboarder, plus an amazing video sequence.

More videos were filmed in America, featuring Block and his car performing hair-raising feats of precision driving known as Gymkhana. Released onto the internet, the Gymkhana videos achieved a cult following and spread around the globe. One of the films, Gymkhana TWO, was the fourth most viewed viral video in 2009. In total, Block has racked up over 50 million views for his films.

His move this year to the WRC is a historic one, making him the first American to enter the WRC as part of a multi-year programme. This year he will tackle seven rounds (Mexico, Turkey, Portugal, German, France, Spain and GB) in an M-Sport-run Focus RS WRC with the objective of developing his skills for 2011 and beyond.

In addition to his WRC programme, Block will continue to compete in the Rally America series, as well as in X-Games XVI, in an open-class Fiesta prepared by Olsbergs MSE.

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