I had been looking forward to catching up somewhere down the line this year. After all, it seemed like there’d be plenty of opportunities. Some sort of US rally program seemed like a given, and even though it’d been a few years since he’d won it, an appearance at New England Forest Rally seemed like a safe bet. I’ve had my designs on getting to Pikes Peak someday for a while too, and seeing the Hoonipigasus get its redemption after not getting to make the run last year felt like it might be the right time.

Instead, I’m reckoning, as with the rest of our world, with the fact that Ken Block is gone.

I’m not going to overplay my relationship with Ken here. It had been a long time since we’d really spoken, and I don’t know how much he remembered me from our Global Rallycross days the last time I saw him at NEFR a couple years ago. If you know me in the paddock, you also know I’m not really the type to push on people for their availability, either. Even when I’m working as a direct representative for an event or series, I often see myself as a passive observer, someone whose job in bringing the story to the people is to insert as little of himself into it as he can. If you really want me, I’m not all that hard to track down.

But that approach was a huge part of what made working with Ken so fulfilling: he made me, as a twentysomething learning on the fly, feel like I could be a larger part of the story if I wanted to, like I’d already earned that right by getting as far as I had. One of the first times I really remember a driver appreciating what I did was Ken telling me I’d asked him good questions before the lone GRC race at Bristol Motor Speedway back in 2013, halfway through my rookie season. It was something I sheepishly downplayed in the moment, but it stuck with me. Later that weekend, Ken took his best GRC result to that point, winning multiple heats and surviving the four-wide dive into the Bristol infield to come home second.

Up to that point, there had been a lot of ink spilled over whether or not Ken was a “legitimate” race car driver because of his marketing background. Regardless of which racing driver you’re talking about or where they come from, this is a discussion that has always been borne primarily of jealousy, usually propagated by bitter souls who would certainly do much worse behind the wheel (and in the paddock) if it was their money to burn. When Ken finally broke through for his first GRC win in Las Vegas at the end of that season, it was an immensely popular moment, and one of the biggest highs we ever hit. The event was produced beautifully, the track was competitive, and to top it off, Ken avoided the first-turn carnage that had often affected his races, drove smartly after Tanner Foust got a stop-and-go, and finally had it all come together for him. It was also a cathartic “fuck you” to those who chose to see Ken primarily through the lens of the Gymkhana series, as if precision driving skill was somehow less valuable than racecraft, or couldn’t contribute to competitive success.

*Image via Alison Padron/Red Bull Content Pool*

Of course, as with most rallycross drivers, Ken still had his moments of pushing too far. Top Gear Festival Barbados in 2014 was one of his most spectacular moments gone wrong, an unlucky curb hop while battling Joni Wiman for the lead coming out of the last corner on Lap 1 that led to a rollover into the barriers at Bushy Park. As one of our only races without a live feed that season, the fact that we were outside of the United States, and me neither having a radio to race control that day nor a clear view of him exiting the car, it was a perfect storm of communication challenges that was one of the most stressful race days I ever had. (On the bright side, I was never without a radio again.)

*Image via Garth Milan/Red Bull Content Pool*

The bitter irony of it was, with how the rest of the season shook out, Ken would have been the champion had he only settled for second in Barbados—even though he won the finale in Las Vegas once again. Privately, even though Joni was Red Bull’s driver and he still won the title, I think even they were disappointed not to be able to crown Ken the champion of their series. It would’ve meant everything to the sport.

And so, in some ways, Ken’s exit from GRC was the beginning of the end for us. We’d already had to make peace with other big names like Travis Pastrana and Brian Deegan making limited commitments, and Dave Mirra had been off the entry list since the end of 2013. We were losing the action sports credibility that had set us apart from being just another racing series. But Ken’s flat end to 2015, and subsequent departure to our rival series with an all-new factory-backed car that would never race in GRC, left a hole that we had to act like we could fill but really never did. How do you replace that combination of on-track success, compelling personality, and most of all, a reliable presence? For many years, going to a GRC race almost guaranteed that you got to meet Ken.

In truth, it’s easy to make a lot of moments feel larger than they were in retrospect when someone of this magnitude passes on. But truthfully, Ken made even the most rote interactions in the autograph line feel special for people, and mundane conversations memorable. I learned about the Finnish long drink well before it started hitting American liquor store shelves because of Ken’s love for it, but I think he offered it to me once and I turned it down because I knew how hard it was for him to get a hold of it. I think even those little moments tended to stick because, despite the showman persona, he was a much deeper vessel than that. Turning one of the Gymkhana clips into a “Hollywood megamercial” wasn’t Ken selling out—it was him selling out the concept of selling out. And he brought that sly, electrifying cleverness to so many interactions with so many people, even when the stakes were low.

It’s hard to know what else to say from here. Our collective hearts break for Lucy and their children, and I hope that their entire family is able to find peace. As somebody who gets to work with Dale Earnhardt Jr. at iRacing, I have a special thought to spare for their daughter Lia, who has just been coming into her own as both a driver and public personality over the past couple of years. Ken’s last Instagram post is of Lia, and it was clear to all how much he was enjoying that she had taken up the family profession alongside both of her parents.

Just three weeks ago, Ken dropped a documentary of his 2022 rally season named Go Fast Risk Every Thang. It’s now at the top of my must-watch list in his honor, and if nothing else, the name serves as a fitting summation of a career unlike any other. Sometimes the risks that we take in life are the things that truly make us feel alive, and few people will ever teach us that lesson more effectively.

Go Fast, Risk Everything

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