Ken Block and BJ Baldwin at Baja 300 Powerdays!
Ken Block Vintage Rally Car Practice!
A new Rally video has DC Co-Founder and Rally Team Member Ken Block having a bit of fun in a vintage rear wheel drive Ford Escort at Team O’Neal’s Rally School in New Hampshire. World Rally Championship driver, Chris Atkinson joined Block for the practice and video that resulted, now live at dcshoes.com/auto.
Block purchased the vintage rear-wheel-drive rally car to practice and have fun in. Wanting to broaden his rally skills, the Euro-only-spec 1978 Ford Escort MK2 helps him let loose in a few non-Rally America Championship events. Don’t let the vintage shell fool you—under the hood sits a 2.4-liter, four-cylinder Millington engine that boasts 280 BHP. Couple that with a WRC-styled paddle shifting, six speed sequential gearbox and you have one fast vintage rally car.
Block took the car to Team O’Neil’s Rally School in July 2009 to put the vintage rally car through it’s paces, and Former Subaru World Rally Team driver Chris Atkinson joined Block to break it in. Neither Block nor Atkinson have much experience in RWD cars, so the rally session and video is a good look at the two of them to flip flopping between the driver and passenger seats.
Block will enter select races each year with this car, including Rally Defi in Canada this coming weekend, September 11-12. Block returns to serious Rally America National Championship competition—in a Subaru Impreza WRX STI—at Rally Colorado, September 19-20.
Ken Block in his vintage Ford Escort
Ken Block and Chris Atkinson
Founded by Ken Block and Damon Way in 1993, DC quickly grew to a leader in performance skateboarding shoes and renowned action sports brand. Today DC stands as a global brand whose product line has expanded to include men’s, women’s and kids’ skateboarding and lifestyle shoes, apparel, snowboards, snowboard boots, outerwear, and accessories. As one of the cornerstones of its marketing strategy, DC has built a world-class team of professional skateboarding, snowboarding, surfing, BMX, motocross and rally athletes that exemplify and enhance DC’s brand, develop its signature products, and support its promotional efforts. DC is a subsidiary of Quiksilver, Inc.
Mad Media geht nach Deutschland! (Mad Media goes to Germany!)
We traveled across the sea to film the first annual Baja 300 Powerdays. The event was an invitation-only exhibition race in the Lausitz region of Germany, just outside of Berlin. The SCORE International sanctioned event organized by SCORE racer and former WRC driver Armin Schwarz featured world-class drivers from off-road racing, rally, enduro motocross and freestyle motocross all on one track together.
Baja 300 Powerdays marked the first time Trophy Trucks and Class 1 cars have ever been on European soil. The event was also the first time in history that off-road and rally cars competed in the same venue.
Off-road Competitors included BJ Baldwin, Jesse James, Gustavo Vildósola, and Danny Sullivan in the Trophy Truck class and Armin Schwarz, Armin Kremer, Martin Christensen and Andreas Aigner in the Class 1 buggies. The rally class consisted of rally legends Petter Solberg, Gigi Galli, Ken Block and Nasser Al-Attiyah. Motocross featured Dakar champion Cyril Despres along with numerous other enduro racers and freestyle motocross riders.
The track was composed of separate lines for each class within the same course. At three separate points, the trophy trucks jumped over the rally cars, including a mega-jump where freestyle bikes jumped over trophy trucks, while jumping over rally cars, stacking the vehicles three tall in the air.
We are in charge of the US television coverage and got some killer footage that we can’t wait to share!
The event was a massive success with nearly 20,000 spectators as well as an unprecedented amount of media coverage including RKL, Europe’s largest TV network. The event will return even larger next year as a full-fledged race.
