Last Summer, during a rare quiet moment in his busy schedule, we caught up with best friend of Travis Pastrana and now World Rally Championship driver Ken Block…

Tell me about the sport. It has been around for a long time and in America it’s really growing in popularity. Why do you think that is?

Why do I think it’s growing? Er, I would say in the past, rally just didn’t have much exposure here in America. In America it has really been much more about cars that go round in circles and cars that go straight and that’s just kind of what America’s sort of had as a motor sports base. And I knew of rally since I was a little kid. That was always my favourite formal motor sport, but I never knew it existed here in the US at all. So I think er, the first time that I really knew that that there was a rally championship here in America is when Travis Pastrana did a few rallies in 2004. Subaru had er paid for him to go out and do a couple just to try it out for fun and er, and as soon as the press releases came out on line, you know, Travis Pastrana doing rally, ah! I just thought wow! I just, I couldn’t believe that there was actually rally in the US. And that is how little exposure that it had, I mean I pay a lot of attention to different motor sports and erm, motor cross and because you know, I come from skateboarding and snow boarding but I just had no idea that it was that small and that little exposed. So when Travis started doing it, it really opened it up for someone like me to kind of see that there was more, and then as he’s done more and more, and then X Games brought it in, I think that’s really what’s brought it to, much more of a peak of interest for people. That there’s some good exposure of it, there’s a big name person like Travis doing it and that it just has a lot more eyeballs on it than there was before.

So where did you get your fast driving reputation?
I’ve been a fan of rally since I was a little kid, I just loved the way that the cars moved and how aggressive it was and there was really no other motor sport that I see that with such technical driving yet the car is sliding and jumping and I’d raced Moto Cross when I was younger and ridden dirt bikes for about 25 years of my life, so for me rally is like er, some relatable form of motor sport. Erm, obviously it’s quite different but for me it’s something that I can relate to much more er, you know, being on a dirt as opposed to be on a tarmac track so, for me it’s just something that, I absolutely love doing and it’s been an influence of mine like I said since I was a little kid. So as I’ve gotten better and better and wanted to expand kinda what I do in cars, it, it’s just been my outlet. And as I’ve gotten better and better at it, I’ve wanted to push myself and excel at it, because, er I’m just very competitive. I, I enjoy coming out here and racing with guys like Travis and Tanner Faust and Dave and it’s just so fun to, to try and push and develop those skills further and further, and er as far as Travis’s comments I just really enjoyed pushing that, outer limit of what’s possible with the cards is what I, I just really enjoy doing it.

You always take the jumps fast and you don’t mind catching some air. Would you agree with that being a signature of yours?
Oh, er, jumping the rally car for me was just, that’s what rally cars are supposed to do from er watching the WRC when I was younger that that’s what rally cars did. They jumped and the first rally that I went to, there were some jumps in a couple of the first stags and my co driver was like no slow down don’t jump I was like hey what do you mean don’t jump, ha rally cars are supposed to jump you know,. But if the jump is incorrect it can damage the car and you don’t make it to the end of the stage, you don’t finish the race, so, that’s a part of the rally, you’ve got to, got to get the car to the end. To finish so, er, as I learned more and more about rally and about what the car was capable of, I kind of started looking at things from a Moto cross eye, and coming from our dirt bike background, is like, oh that looks like a third gear table top you know, it’s something that came very naturally to us coming from these other sports. The, the mentality of how far to go how fast to go and if the transitions look correct It, it’s just very engrained to us so. Er, so Travis and I did that jump and from there I had some opportunities to do some other stuff. Especially with the show on discovery channel, they asked me if I could build you know, a big jump and see how big we could go and that just from there just kind of sparked off doing some of this jump stuff. And it’s been really fun, it’s been fun to take this background of Moto cross and even snow boarding and apply it to what we do in the car, er, the difficult part about it is, we make a slight error and it has much worse consequences than a, than a dirt bike er, or a snow board, so it’s, you know, it’s been very fun but also er, compression fractured one of my vertebrates as a consequence of doing it slightly wrong. But I don’t know it’s just fun for me.

People might say that the stunt jumps you and Travis Pastrana do bring a lot of attention to the sport…
Yeah I agree, I mean in someone like Travis in the sports brought a lot of attention and doing some of the stuff, that I’ve done with the cars brought a good amount of attention and I mean for us it really is the base root of it is just having fun, we’re not like hey let’s go and make a video of jumping car, it’s literally just going out and having fun, and I’m just stoked that people appreciate it. You know, we’ve done some unique stuff and some different stuff that for us it was just sort of exploring what is possible with a rally car. And it’s just gone very successfully. And I mean Subaru builds an incredible car for us to go play in and we’re able to beat the crap out of the damn thing and it’s just been incredibly fun to push and see how far we can go with it, and it’s been very cool for us to go and put these videos up on the internet and really have a lot of success with them.

Do you think that is in a way the definition of rally racing, I mean you are sort of pushing the limits all the time anyway, it’s just an extension of that right?
The rally is nuts just because of how much skill it takes not only being able to drive the car but identify the road and right to notes, and drive to the notes and it’s just an, incredibly complicated form of racing. And I just appreciate it so much because of, what it takes to do it and the skill that it takes to be at the top level and I’m really no where near the top level, the WRC drivers are just, are so incredibly good I, I would like to somewhat, someday be some more, some where near that level that I, I want to keep trying to push to get better and better but, it it’s, it takes a lot of work and a lot of time but, you know, I’ve really enjoyed how far I’ve come in this short amount of time, this is only my fifth year of professional rally so, I’m you know, planning on keep going as far as I can but it’s, like you said it’s about pushing and finding that limit and being able to learn from it and keep going keep pushing.

Talk about some of the variables that you do face, as a rally driver - for people that aren’t familiar with Rally.
Well for me that’s one of the most interesting things about rally. The conditions change constantly, but we have to keep bracing. The weather is part of the challenge you know, some sports when it starts raining they, they pull off and stop, but, you know, if it snows or hails or is foggy you know, it’s a dust storm, all those conditions change the way that you drive but it doesn’t mean that we stop. So I just had a big wreck about two or three weeks ago up in Canada that I was completely blind by dust, and I thought I knew and heard the notes good enough to keep my foot to the floor, and I ran out of time about 70 metres away from a corner, and went off sideways at about 70 miles an hour, rolled in the trees. And that’s just, that’s just part of you know, you have to deal with dust you know, there are cars ahead of you and the win was a blowing and it was early evening and an d you have to be able to adjust and, you know, the goal is to have the lowest cumulative time over two days of racing, and my goal is to get through that stage as quick as I can even with the dust, but you know, I made a slight error and that’s a part of the game. But that’s really what you deal with and you know, in the winter we have races on the snow, and sometimes it’ll be giant ice banks and sometimes it will be smaller ice banks and really icy you know, and other races it’ll be a total downpour. It’s just those types of conditions that that keep it er, keep it very difficult, but make you as a driver really have to adjust and learn and get better.

Tell me about the races that particularly stand out, really amazing races that you’ve had.
Er, for me there are a couple of highlights, like in my short rally career. Er one simple one is that there’s a race in Missouri called Hundred Acre Wood and it was my first win ever as a rally driver, first national win. And I have won it every year since that I’ve been there so I’ve won it four consecutive years, and there are certain, certain races that I’ve crashed almost every year, ha ha ha ha. And then there are certain other races that just work really well and that’s the one that I’ve gotten four wins in a row. Er on top of that in 2007 er at X Games I went head to head with Colin McRae, and Colin Is just, he’s one of the reasons why I’m out here rallying, he is to me the epitome of rally driving . And er he has had a big influence on why I drive, how I drive, everything. In 2006 was the first time he came over and actually competed with us, and I became good friends with him, and in 2007, he came over for the second year. The X Games had Rally in it, and er, as the bracketing went, we went in the semi finals, and I had to go head to head against Colin McRae. Ha! and er, I just looked up at him like, er, I’mma I’m gonna do my best but it’s pretty much over you know!

Tell me about this race that you are here to do tomorrow?
So at the New England Forest Rally this is er, actually one of my favourite rallies but also one of the ones I’ve had a bit of difficulty with. Erm I really really enjoy the roads up here, they’re challenging, they are all very different, and it has, this particular rally has my favourite stage in the north American Championship called Concord Pond so er I’m really looking forward to the race this weekend and pff I gotta try and keep up with Travis and the points! I mean I’ve had some bad luck this year so I’ve got to do my best to try and take another win!