Ken Block: Rally Star, Gymkhana Pioneer and Hoonigan Founder

Ken Block was an American rally driver, extreme sports racer and entrepreneur, best known for his Gymkhana videos and his Hoonigan brand. He co-founded DC Shoes, competed across rallying and rallycross, and died in a snowmobile accident in January 2023 at the age of 55.

Who was Ken Block?

Kenneth Paul Block was born on 21 November 1967 in Southern California and later raised in San Diego. He became known to motorsport fans through rallying, although he also took part in skateboarding, snowboarding and motocross, which reflected his wider interest in action sports.

His children have followed him into the sport. Daughters Lia and Kira and son Mika are all racing drivers.

He was one of the co-founders of DC Shoes. After selling his ownership of the company, he turned his business focus to Hoonigan Industries, an apparel brand for car enthusiasts, where he became co-owner. His racing operation was known as Hoonigan Racing Division, which had formerly been called the Monster World Rally Team.

A rally driver who turned the Gymkhana video into a global format, from Subaru stages to the Electrikhana films.

How did Block's rallying career start?

Block began his national rallying career in 2005 with the Vermont SportsCar team, which prepared a Subaru WRX STi for him. His first event of that season was Sno*Drift, where he finished seventh overall and fifth in the Group N class.

The first season produced five top-five finishes, plus third overall in Group A and fourth in the national Rally America standings. He also won the Rally America Rookie of the Year award at the end of the year.

In 2006 he and his DC rally teammate Travis Pastrana signed a new sponsorship deal with Subaru, and the pair became known as Subaru Rally Team USA. Block was runner-up in the Rally America standings that year, and he took bronze at X Games XII, which hosted the first rally event at the games.

How successful was Block in rally competition?

Block's rally results kept climbing. He won silver at X Games XIII in 2007 and ended the year third in the national standings. He also entered a few rounds of the World Rally Championship, including Rally Mexico and Rally New Zealand.

By the end of 2007 he had achieved 19 podiums and eight overall victories in rally events. He had also recorded two top-five stage times in the Group N class in New Zealand, which showed his pace against a broader field.

In 2008 Block was given a new rally-prepared Subaru WRX STi. He gained his first Canadian rally win at the Rallye Baie-des Chaleurs, and he took first place at Rally New York USA. At the X Games that year he finished tied for third with Dave Mirra. Both had car problems, so the bronze medals were shared between them.

The 2008 national standings gave him second place, after a strong victory in the final event. In the Lake Superior Performance Rally stage he finished more than a minute ahead of his nearest rival, which secured that position.

Did Block race in the World Rally Championship?

Yes. Block joined Ford in 2010 with the Monster World Rally Team, ending his partnership with Subaru. He drove a Ford Focus RS WRC 08 with long-time co-driver Alex Gelsomino, and he became the first American driver to campaign for the World Rally Championship.

That season he scored two points by finishing ninth in Spain. In the same year he contested his sixth season of national rallying, in an open-class Ford Fiesta, and he took a fifth X Games appearance. On 27 February 2010 he won the Rally in the 100 Acre Wood for the fifth consecutive time, breaking the record held by John Buffum.

The 2011 season was harder. On 23 March the Ford Fiesta RS WRC rolled during the shakedown stage of the Rally de Portugal, and Block and Gelsomino were taken to hospital. A representative of the team later said both men were fine. Block then finished eighth in France and ninth in Wales, scoring six points.

Outside the World Rally Championship he kept taking on unusual events. In 2019 he travelled to Ireland for the Donegal International Rally, where he drove an Escort Cosworth and crashed out on SS2. In 2021 he raced the Baja 1000 in the trophy truck class and finished fourth.

His 2013 season opened with a top-ten finish in Mexico, which earned his first six points in the championship and his best-ever seventh-place overall finish. In 2014 he returned with Castrol as sponsor and finished twelfth in Catalunya after a late puncture, which was his second-to-last World Rally Championship season.

How did Block's rallycross career develop?

At the X Games he finished seventh in 2009, second in 2012, twelfth in 2014 and eleventh in 2015, which shows the consistency of his rallycross results. Those results sat alongside his Global RallyCross campaigns, which ran from 2011 onwards.

Block competed in the Global RallyCross Championship from 2011 to 2015. He finished fifth in 2012, third in 2013 and runner-up in 2014, collecting six wins and 15 podiums across the series.

In 2018 he was back with the Americas Rallycross Championship on a full-time basis, earning two podiums and finishing fourth overall in points. Earlier, in 2014, he had been third in the Norway round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship and had won the Norway round of the European Rallycross Championship.

Those results gave him podium finishes in both the Global and the European championships.

For 2016 he decided to compete full-time in the World Rallycross Championship. At Hockenheimring he finished third in the Supercar final, which was his second podium in the series. In 2017 he finished ninth in points, with a best finish of seventh in Britain and France.

Why are Block's Gymkhana videos so well known?

Block produced a series of Gymkhana videos that drew millions of views on YouTube. The first Gymkhana Three release came on 24 August 2010 in parts, and the Gymkhana Four video, The Hollywood Megamercial, was released on 16 August 2011 with Block driving around the Universal Studios backlot.

The series began in 2008 with Gymkhana Practice, filmed in a Subaru Impreza. In 2009 Block released Gymkhana Two, titled as an infomercial, and Airfield Rallying, both in the same Impreza, before the move to Ford Fiesta cars in 2010 made the later films more recognisable.

The Gymkhana Five video, filmed in San Francisco and released on 9 July 2012, reached 5.1 million views within 24 hours. It featured Travis Pastrana on a dirtbike alongside Block's Ford Fiesta, and it was the most-watched video of the previous week.

Later instalments kept the format going. Gymkhana Seven took place in Los Angeles in a Ford Mustang in 2014, Gymkhana Eight in Dubai in 2016, and Gymkhana Ten, the tire-slaying tour, in 2018. The Electrikhana films used the Audi S1 Hoonitron, with the first set in Las Vegas in 2022 and the second in Mexico City in 2023.

The Climbkhana film at Pikes Peak in 2017 featured the Hoonicorn V2, a Mustang built for the hill climb, and it extended the format into a different kind of event.

Block also co-founded Gymkhana Grid in 2010, a gymkhana race held annually around the world, and he won its all-wheel-drive event in 2014.

What were Block's other motorsport and media projects?

In 2005 he took part in the Gumball 3000 Rally with his DC Shoes associates, driving three modified Subaru WRX STis. In 2006 he finished forty-fifth overall in the One Lap of America with Brian Scotto. Several of his films from these years were shared widely on YouTube.

For the Discovery Channel show Stunt Junkies in 2006, he jumped a Subaru WRX STi rally car 171 feet (52 m) and reached a maximum height of 25 feet (7.6 m). In 2007 a crash after landing a large jump at New Zealand's Snow Park cracked one of his vertebrae.

On television, Block was interviewed by James May for Top Gear in 2009 and returned in 2010 when he rolled a Reliant Robin on the show's test track. He later appeared in the BBC programme again in 2016 and 2018. He also held the world record for the fastest snowcat, a modified Ford Raptor called the RaptorTrax.

In 2023 a car labelled Hoon with number 43 was added to Cyberpunk 2077, and on 20 November 2025 Real Racing 3 added his Audi S1 E-Tron Quattro Hoonitron. His cars and style appeared in video games, including Colin McRae: Dirt 2 in 2009, Dirt 3 in 2011, Dirt: Showdown in 2012 and the 2015 Need for Speed title, where he was a style icon. Hoonigan cars also appeared in Forza titles from 2017.

How did Ken Block die?

Block died on 2 January 2023 at the age of 55 in a snowmobile accident near his ranch in Woodland, Utah. Local police said his snowmobile had upended on a steep slope in the Mill Hollow area and landed on top of him, and he was declared dead at the scene.

The first Electrikhana film, shot in Las Vegas in the Audi S1 Hoonitron, was released in 2022, the year before his death.

Hoonigan confirmed his death. The World Rally Championship and the American Rally Association both retired the number 43 in his memory.

His daughter Lia also raced. She began competing in the American Rally Association in 2022 and won the O2WD Driver's Championship in 2023 at the age of 16. Earlier in 2023 she entered Extreme E for Carl Cox Motorsport, and in November 2023 she joined the Williams Driver Academy, with a place announced in the 2024 F1 Academy season with ART Grand Prix.

What is Block's record across his main series?