After a long, ten-year tenure as a Ford driver, Ken Block’s partnership has come to an end. He is, according to Hoonigan, “a free agent.”
Block, a professional rally driver with Hoonigan Racing Division and gymkhana expert, signed with Ford back in 2010 after kicking off his career with Subaru. Since then, the partnership has seemed an inseparable one—after all, Block has pretty much had free reign to have a damn good time in both modern and classic Ford machines, which would be more than enough for any racer.
That doesn’t mean we’ve seen the last of Block, of course. From the Hoonigan Racing Division website:
“Working with Ford over the past decade has been awesome.” says Ken Block. “From racing all over the world, to accumulating a half billion views from Gymkhana THREE to Gymkhana TEN, to creating the Emmy nominated series The Gymkhana Files for Amazon Prime - along with building a fleet of Fords including the iconic AWD Mustang Hoonicorn and F-150 Hoonitruck - it’s been a great partnership. It’s simply been a dream come true to work with the company that built the truck that my Dad drove when I was a teenager. I’m super appreciative to Ford for the support over the years, but I am also looking forward to what an unrestricted 2021 holds, and the ability to spread my wings a bit and play with a lot other toys.”
Ford sounded similarly grateful in a tweet of its own:
All of us at Ford are very grateful for Ken Block and his bringing the thrill of Ford Performance vehicles to a whole new generation of car buyers. He did it in ways that were uniquely Ken—with fun, energetic and extraordinary driving exhibitions that were unmatched in the automotive world, along with important victories and performances in rally and rallycross worldwide.
It’s going to be strange seeing Ken Block outside of a Ford, but you can bet he already has some absurdly fun projects cooking up for 2021.