Sunday was the end of X-Games 15 and there were plenty of great events on and off the dirt. However I am not going to lie, I was ready for the rally cars when they came up. Rally America drivers and former Indianapolis 500 winners all shooting for the gold medal.
The action got started early in the morning when Ken Block rolled his Subaru STI causing some cosmetic damage. The team first feared the worst when the car sat on its roof for so long. The fear was the engine would be destroyed with the fluids all leaking to parts where fluids are not to leak. Thankfully for the fans the car was ok and ready for the start of the competition.
There were a number of elimination rounds that led up to the main events that would bring in the drivers like Block, Pastrana, Foust, and Mirra. However none of these names would be the one that would grab the headlines. Kenny Brack went into the competition with little rally experience in a car that was described as violent. A 800 hp machine that was brought out of the stables of Ford Europe. The Ford Fiesta that was driven by rally great Macus Gronholm was handed to Brack and along side him was Tanner Foust. Not a bad teammate to have considering Foust has won gold at X before and is one of the top drivers in the Rally America series. Would Foust’s knowledge of the circuit be enough to help him and his teammate give Ford the new Fiesta’s first overall win in the states?
In the end it would prove to be enough as Kenny would knock off Tanner Foust and Travis Pastrana to take the gold medal. Impressive considering the little amount of time he had in the car and on the surface. Even more impressive are those he had to go through to get the gold. By no means were either of these top end drivers not at the top of their game. Pastrana was pushing hard enough to spin out of the finale and Foust ran as hard as he could in the five door variant of the Fiesta. Very Impressive run for the rookie and an excellent end to X-Games 15.
What about my prediction you say? What about the Internet icon Ken Block? Block had trouble with the car all weekend and things continued to go from bad to worse for the Subaru pilot. After the start to his first run he had the driver door come open, and a wall reach out and hit his car. The car was off timing wise all day and he conceded a quick defeat after being disqualified against Brian Deegan for cutting the race circuit. Block cut the track because his Subaru was unable to produce enough power and speed to hit the 70 foot jump that was apart of the circuit. The ruling was Block DQed and Deegan would go on to get DQed for the exact same thing the next round because of low power. His stemmed from a turbo hose coming off after a rough landing on the same ramp a round prior.
X-Games rally action lived up to the hype as usual and a major congrats to Kenny Brack for shocking the Rally America world and the action sports community really.
Photos from ESPN.com
It was fantastic seeing Kenny in a competitive race car again! I loved seeing his return to open-wheel racing in 2005, but he was not in a good ride. Any word on whether we’ll see Kenny as a full-time competitor in Rally America next year?