After months of “rumor” and speculation as to the future of Ken Block, we finally have our answer and it is more than we could have hoped for.
Ford will now team up with Ken for a global sports push in 2010. What does this mean you ask? Ken will drive in the 2010 World Rally Championship in a Ford Focus WRC and run Rally America events in the all new and amazing Ford Fiesta. Specific event breakdown has not been outlined at the moment. This is huge news after the discussion that had taken place at the Lake Superior Performance Rally in which Ken hinted that he would stay at Subaru to finish out his deal. Monster Energy had indicated to Block that they wanted to expand their efforts with him to a world stage in the future, which may include a partial WRC calendar in 2010. Somewhere in the inner workings at Subaru USA, that deal has apparently come to a close and Ken is now free to do join the American rally giant.
This also opens up a potential US round for the WRC in the very near future. Block’s following in the states has reached iconic status after his Gymkhana videos smashed YouTube records multiple times. Now that Monster has an American driver in an American car to showcase to the world, we may see the energy drink giant begin to explore the possibility of sponsoring an event here in our backyard. The WRC is now back on the television here in the states and the discipline itself is really picking up steam due to the Rally America series and the X-Games. That teamed with North Star’s (ISC) drive to expand the WRC to bigger markets sets the environment to just about right in terms of hosting an event. It will take a couple of years to get the event due to the process involved, but that may actually prove to be optimum timing.
