Sometimes you win a lot more
in a failure than you do in a win. [Engine revving] It would be very easy
to fold in and not to come out
and get the result. We've done this before.
We win and crush it again. [Engine revving] [Tires skidding] It was one of those crashes
that scars you mentally. [Engine revving] Oh f*** it. There's two of us in that car. I have another person's
life in my hands. [Engine revs] When in doubt, flat out. Press on regardless.
Go fast, risk everything. These are terms
that you hear a lot in rally, because rally is a very,
very different type of motorsport. You're not taking the same corner over and over again. It's a style of driving
that is rewarded, but it is also severely punished. It's what makes rally great. It's also what makes rally
extremely frustrating as a driver, a co-driver or as a team,
because you have to drive on that absolute limit
that can be different for you and the person who's maybe
30 seconds behind you. This will be the story
of why going fast and risking everything
sometimes puts you on the top, sometimes leaves you on the bottom. So enjoy the next eight races
in the story of Ken's ride to the top, the bottom, back to the top
and you'll see how it ends. Ken Block, the shoe tycoon
turned rally car driver. That's what the first story
said about him. He didn't start racing rally
until he was 36. That's usually the age
most people retire from rally. So unfortunately for him,
he's behind the ball since day one. The one thing he does have is
a commitment to just go balls out and that's a lot of what's made
Ken who Ken is. Well, the biggest challenge
that I realized when I first started working with Ken
is he's an extremely busy individual. You know, back when we met, he was actually
still running DC Shoes. Alex Gelsomino
is probably the only sensible thing
in the rally car with Ken. Rally is all I know. It's taught me everything I know. I never learned
anything at school. Don't tell that to the kids. Alex is a big piece of, you know,
why the team wins when they do. People that turn up
at an event after one day and need to use laundry services, what the ****'s all that about? Derek Dauncey is one
of the best people in the world. Hands down. Dear Old Dad,
as we like to call him. 2006 was our first year
working with Derek, and he's been
our team director since then. He's the one that has the strategy, and without Derek,
we would not be here. Derek is, I think, the most
important person on the team. Sorry, Ken. Travis Pastrana is a psychopath. Absolute. [Engine revving] [Engine revving] [Engine revving] He's someone I have
a ton of respect for. His talent is incredible. Yeah, Travis and Ken
have been competing against each other since the start. Brandon Semenuk is a pro mountain
biker turned rally car driver. And to be quite honest,
when he first came into the sport, I don't know if anyone really
took him seriously, but he is now a real contender. Can't tell much, but all I know,
he's a very fierce competitor and he's allowed Ken and I
to step it up this year. So even if I don't know
much about him, I'm thankful for having him
in the championship. The decision as to
what I would race in '22 came very, very late, unfortunately. The Subaru was a great race car. Vermont SportsCar
puts together a great package, but it just didn't feel
necessarily right to me. I was in shorter wheelbase cars
most of my career, and the Subaru
is a bigger, longer car. As we narrowed it down, only a couple became very obvious. So what we ended up with
was a Hyundai i20 WRC car run by a company called
2C Competition out of France. Hyundai i20 WRC. Such an incredible machine. It's something that,
for a co-driver's career, a driver's career,
it's definitely the highlight. Hyundai has been really committed to WRC in the past five years, running a factory team
in the World Rally Championship at the top level,
so they make a Rally 1 car, which is the top level
and a Rally 2 car, which is the second tier level, and at the top level they've got,
in the past five years, 41 wins,
104 podiums two manufacturer titles also,
so they've been killing it. [Engine revving] [Engine revving] All right, so what makes
the Hyundai i20 WRC car the perfect car for Ken? Well, first off,
it's small and nimble. See, this is the style
of driving that Ken likes. He likes a car he can tuck,
throw sideways, and be super confident
in where it is on the road. And not only is this
a WRC-level car, it's modern WRC. So it's got a big arrow, which means
it's a full commitment car, but to make it legal here at ARA, it did have to go through
a few modifications. First one is a little less power. It's running on a 34-mill restrictor
on the turbo, less air in means less power out. In addition to that, the folks at ARA stacked on
an extra 200 pounds of ballast to slow this bad boy down. We knew that that is possible
to be competitive here because there's a WRC car
currently competing in the US Championship, but it's actually got a bigger engine,
a 2-liter engine So we knew that these cars are
all running about the same level, same speed, even though they're all
quite different. So that's why we thought
the Hyundai WRC car, with even the 1.6-litre,
could be competitive. But it was a bit of a mystery as to
how competitive it really would be. So for me coming
into this championship in 2022 with this, you know, WRC car
that's actually, you know, 400ccs
less than Barry's Fiesta, but a whole 700ccs
less than that Subaru, so you take my car
plus a sport bike, and you have the Subaru. So we think this is gonna work,
but we don't know. There's just a big question. We won't know
until we're actually on the stages racing against
these other top spec cars. We're going to find out real soon. 100 Acre Wood
is in central Missouri. It's known for it's very fast stages, very consistent grip and surfaces. The team history of 100 Acre Wood
is probably the best. Ken and I have won
the rally seven times, and I think six consecutive wins. 100 Acre Wood was an event where we, unfortunately, couldn't
carry as much test as we wanted because the car arrived
late from Europe. We saw some unprofessionalism
in the freight industry, which led us to basically turning up at the 100 Acre Wood tests
with no container. Dude, where's my car?
-Where's your car, dude? And we got the car
the night before the test started and had to wrap it. It's one of those things
and no one really saw what was going on in the background. But it's like a swan. Everything looks really nice
on the top, but underneath,
everyone was pedaling like hell. [Engine revving] [Tires screeching] I need to get up to speed in the car,
make sure the car is working, and keep the car in great condition
because we race only a couple days after this test so that I can at least
start stage one semi comfortable. [Engine revving] [Tires skidding] And it got even more difficult when
we had a small accident on the test. [Engine revving] The worst thing that could
possibly happen on this test it happened, like,
coming down a ruffle hill, and it's just
a quick little section, and all of a sudden I'm sideways
in a tree with the rear end. No fault of Ken's,
impossible to get round the corner and just tore
the right-rear corner off the car. It shouldn't have been
that big of a deal, but looking at the tire,
it looked like it had some damage. It had gone flat,
and I didn't know it. So it just pitched us
sideways into this tree. When the team showed up
and they just looked at me and looked at it like,
"it's over." And we're now into
a major rebuild on the car. All right, so here's the situation. The team is
in the middle of nowhere Missouri. Not exactly the capital of spare
motorsports parts for rally cars, and this is a brand new car, which means
we don't have any backup parts. So right now the team is trying
to track down a container which is supposed to have
all the parts we need to be able to get Ken back on. I think the technical definition
is ****ed. The long and short of it was
we were driving up the highway at a legal speed
to try and intercept a container coming towards us, knowing that if we got
40 minutes out one way of the route
we could be quicker than he was driving back. That's how desperate we got. A lot of paddling
with the feet underneath. A calm exterior,
but it was taxing. [Engine revving] The car is fixed,
the team was able to pull off a miracle to get
the car ready to race 15 miles of testing. So the first stage miles today are going to be
the first real test of the car after it's been put back together,
but it is what it is. [Engine revving] Because of our knowledge
of the roads and the stages we were able to compensate them, and found ourselves leading the rally
at the end of day one. The lead carried on into day two. We're actually doing very well. The confidence was quite high. The lead at that point
is about 45 seconds. [Engine revving] We unfortunately encounter
with a deer on three miles from the end of the event. Woah! S***! Right after we hit the deer, what's going through my head
is that we only have three miles left and I'm thinking we can do it. We can limit the damage here. And a few seconds more went by
and a split oil line started pouring oil
on the windscreen. -Give me one.
-It's on, it's on. 3 long. Yeah, it's fluid, it's oil. That made it really difficult
to a point that we had to drive basically at walking speed. We ended up losing the rally
by 10 or 15 seconds. The real disappointing thing is
the team put in such a huge effort. You know, Derek, Alex, everybody,
and then I felt really good because all that effort went to,
you know, this great result. You know, me winning
my eighth time there. But unfortunately, a deer
had a different plan for me. I don't think it would have went
better than expected. I come away with some good points
to start the championship. Second overall,
a second is way better than DNFs. So, I am happy at least
about that part. You know, the crazy thing is,
you know, new car for us, first day of the championship
with a new race team and our competition somehow
thinks we're cheating. Some accusations
about the car not meeting the technical regulations,
including taking the gearbox out and stripping it
in front of everybody, which wasn't very professional to prove
that we met the regulations. All right, that's not exactly
the results we know Ken wanted. After all, 100 Acre Woods
is his race to lose. He's won it so many times, I don't think he knows
what it's like to not be on the top of the box,
but for the team, it puts us second place
overall going into Olympus. So the Olympus Rally is a classic
of the American Championship, and it's based not
too far from Seattle. The roads are just legendary. You know, these are
all forest logging roads. There's a lot of gravel. And depending on where the roads go,
there can be open areas or it can be quite dense forests with trees
right on the edge of the road. There are notoriously
difficult stages, but we've done it many times
and we're feeling confident. [Engine revving] After we're done
100 Acre Woods now, even though we've had some bad luck
that relegated us to second place we are confident
that this car is what we like. Ken is going to be able
to drive that car to win. [Engine revving] I was really looking forward
to going into the Olympus Rally because I knew we'd have a big test
and have a lot more time in the car and be able to really, kind of,
explore some setups and just to have
more confidence racing. [Engine revving] The rally started off fairly well. First stage, it's a very difficult stage,
so I started a bit conservative. We were second fastest on this stage. [Engine revving] Ok, 803. Going into stage two,
I decided to up the pace a little bit. We won the stage. It was a very quick,
tricky stage also. [Engine revving] And then going into the third stage, you know, I felt all right.
I felt like the pace was going okay. Check. 100. Left six plus over crest,
equal left four long. 3 plus! Again, 3 plus. E two right five long pleasants.
4 minus hook, long. Again 4 minus hook long.
20 left 3 minus. E two. Oh s***t. [Tires screeching] And unfortunately, had one
of the biggest crashes of our career. ****in hell. Sorry! It was one of those crashes
that scars you mentally. Something that has haunted me for many months. Only recently I've been able
to push it away from my mind. No matter how fast
I made the wheels go, I couldn't get the car
to go that way. So we hit a tree
with the left rear which spun us
and hit another tree head on And I remember looking at the book
and calling that following slower corner and feeling
like the speed is slightly off. We should be slowing down. Alex did exactly
what his job is to do, and even though it was
a dangerous corner, and he even repeated the note, so I knew it was a dangerous corner, so my brain had
two opportunities to hear that and react and I didn't. And when you realize there is going to be a sudden stop
that's when you question are you going to leave it? So the rally safe equipment registered that impact
as a 12G impact. Obviously destroyed the car
from the left rear and from the front impact. There's no way that car
is getting fixed. There's no way
that we're finishing this rally. And our biggest competition,
Brandon, who won the previous rally,
goes on and wins this rally also. [Engine revving] Our team gives us the safest car
with the best safety equipment. Their work and the fact that
they selected the best safety equipment was what, in my opinion,
kept Ken and I alive. So I'm grateful to that. But it was a nasty crash. One nasty crash. I have control of the steering wheel, brake, clutch, gearbox,
and we're racing down the stage, trying to drive flat out to win. And there's two of us in that car,
you know, and I have another person's life in my hands. So I, you know,
really felt that weight on my neck. You know, I go back
and just start reflecting and trying to figure this out
and a big factor coming into that rally
was that I had an injury. on Monday the week of the race. So I start that process of getting
massaged, chiropractor work, painkillers, all that sort of stuff. Friday, we started the race
and I had only been off the ibuprofen for a day or two
and come to find out with a lot of research
that that amount of ibuprofen can actually really affect your brain,
including even a disconnection of your brain from your hearing. So that makes a lot of sense to what happened to us there
on stage three. You know, I'm kind of researching
everything from supplements, nutrition, exercise, trying to narrow things down,
and as I was getting closer, I actually was able to reach out
to a friend of a friend, a guy named Andrew Huberman
who does the Huberman Lab podcast and tell him the whole scenario
and laid out the possibility of this ibruprofen thing
and he said, "yeah, that is most likely it." But man, that crash
and what it did to us as far as the championship
standings, it just made the rest of the year like we really had to virtually be as perfect as we possibly could
to try and take this title. So in standard Ken Block fashion, he's stacked way too much
onto the schedule. So in addition
to the ARA championship, he also competed
in the East Africa Safari Rally, one of the coolest rallies there is. [Engine revving] In addition to that, Ken has had
a stack of Hoonitron testing, both Gymkhana testing,
some snow testing, and a bunch of different stuff. [Tires screeching] But the biggest project
of the year for Ken is to fulfill a childhood dream. Actually, the thing
that got him into rally. To go race Pikes Peak
International Hill Climb. And to do that,
we've decided to build an absolute beast of a machine. the Hoonipigasus. We love working with artists
outside the space. So this year we tapped
Trevor Andrew, aka Trouble Andrew,
aka Gucci Ghost, to help us design a lever. And what he brought was
something completely different than anything we've done before. For the Hoonipigasus,
Gucci Ghost created a symbol pattern that laid over a pink base,
which we loved because it played homage back
to the original 917/20 or aka the first porker. So to connect the WRC i20
to the Hoonipigasus, Trevor took
his classic ghost pattern and lay that over black
with a multi-color inside, which kind of brings the whole
package together for the year. Oregon Trail Rally
is a beautiful rally. It runs in the Hood River area
and just north of that across the Columbia River
in the state of Washington. Very, very fast stages,
no trees at all. It's sort of like high desert-ish. You know, just very
open stages and the roads, you can tell they haven't
been built too long ago. It's one of my favorite events. We have never won it before. So I was looking
forward to going this year. [Engine revving] By now, the pressure is on. We must win Oregon. There is no second place. Third place won't do anything. [Engine revving] Without trying to put
too much pressure on, it was basically do or die. [Engine revving] I was pretty nervous
going into the Oregon Trail rally I knew that we needed
to win this event. But there was still that bit of lack
of confidence going into the event. That can't have happened what happened at Olympus
and we need to go win. [Engine revving] We have a plan to push really hard on day two of the event
and put a lead on it and we achieved that. We want to believe
all the stages of day two put us in a solid lead
and manage day three. [Engine revving] Third place overall Alex Gelsomino and Ken Block. Alex and I put in a great effort. These guys were great
to battle with. We knew what we needed to do. I was nervous going into it. But at the end of the day,
the result was exactly what we needed to get this championship back on track. Southern Ohio Forest Rally
is a new addition to the championship,
and the roads are quite gravelly, but they have a lot of camber. They're very well built for rain, so it's very enjoyable
to drive from a driver perspective. [Engine revving] The Southern Ohio Forest Rally is actually one
of my new favorite rallies in our US championship.
It's just amazing stages. It's quite slow and technical compared to the rest of the events
in the American Championship. [Engine revving] Technical, flowy,
lots of great linking turns and my confidence
was really starting to come back. [Engine revving] It started off by us getting
the exact road position we wanted. We won stage one,
which was Thursday night on the tarmac in town,
and the Friday stages went along the same way. We were able to get a good lead. We started really strong again. The same strategy as Oregon. Push it on the first day
and maintain on the second day. [Engine revving] And Alex and I were
just able to be on it and be on it for every stage
and putting in good stage times throughout the entire event. [Engine revving] And your overall winners,
Ken Block and Alex Gelsomino. Brandon Semenuk had two wins,
Alex and I had two wins. Travis is still right there also He just hasn't won
any events this year, and we were starting
to be right back in that championship title hunt. We're back in the game
and ready to fight. All right, here we are,
halfway through the season. Four events down,
four left to go. And it has been a wild one. From deer strikes
to some pretty big offs, Ken and Alex have not had it easy. And unfortunately,
New England, historically, has been a place
for some other big moments. New England for its rally runs
in New Hampshire and Maine. So again, logging roads,
quite wide and fast, but those roads are built
with a lot of rock base, so punctures and other issues, mechanical issues
are common at that event. So it's the New England Forest Rally
and it's been a wild one for me from my first in care moment,
racing a Rallycross car there and having it chuck me
off the road, to rolling with Cossie. So it's been a wild event for me,
but I have a couple of wins there. And one of my favorite things about the New England Forest Rally
is we always do good test. the week before at
the team O'Neal Rally school. So we set up
a great test there for myself, Leah and Lucy, and we brought in
a great instructor for Leah which is Brendan Reeves. A little bit of left up right there and the same here,
just to settle the car. He came in and did some great
instruction for Leah and Leah really took
a couple levels step up in speed and she was getting really
confident and really happy. And then the worst thing happened. She went off and crashed which is really disappointing for her
because she's got all this new sort
of confidence and skill, and now she doesn't go, get to go use it on the rally. Alex and I are feeling really good
looking forward to New England Forest Rally. Now we've got a couple
of wins under our belt, so everything is really
coming together. Yeah, the pressure is on. It's one of those events
where we carry a lot of experience, so we're feeling confident. -Have a good rally, Ken.
-Yep, you too Alex. [Engine revving] At the right 6 short, take the left 6,
open, into left over 6. First two stages is Concord Pond. So we do it once
and then go do a regroup and then come back and do it
the second time. It's a place where all the spectators
line up to see the cars in action. [Engine revving] It's one of Ken's favorite stages, so we're always stoked to go
and compete on that stage. [Engine revving] Right 6 plus, jump, 250,
coach right. 100! 49.0, 2 seconds off the record. Finished stage one second overall, just less than a second off Brandon,
who won the stage. Went and did our regroup,
came back, and we won the stage,
actually setting a new record. Yeah, that's a stage record. Wow. Sorry. Stage three goes really well, and we won that
by a couple of seconds. Now we're leading the rally. We have two more stages left
for the day and for stage four and literally putting on my helmet
thinking about minimizing mistakes and doing everything perfectly, I go to click in my intercom [NO AUDIO] and I can't hear Alex. I can't hear you. And so Alex and I end up panicking,
like we have a backup intercom. We're trying that. Go back to the original one. In rally, you check in and after a couple of minutes,
you start the stage. They're not waiting for you. and we realize
there's nothing we can do. [Engine revving] These cars are very loud. There is no other way
to communicate with the driver. The pace notes and only thing
I could do is use hand singles. You know, we have such little time
to figure this out. I'm just like
"Alex, give me, you know, numbers on your hand,
or yell. Whatever you can do
to get us down the stage." If anything,
if you can do four or three or five. [Engine revving] Imagine how difficult it is. You have this driver focused. His eyes are down the road,
you know, and you have a hand popping up
and telling you the corner. [Engine revving] Hand signals are only going
to give 15% of the information
the driver needs to have to attack a stage full throttle. [Engine revving] Alex and I are
both really disappointed. But we know this is just one stage out of many
for the rest of the event. So, you know,
we kind of regroup in the transit, going to the next stage
and trying different things, from cords to the different
intercom systems to the helmets. We figure out the best system would
actually be for us to swap helmets. 5 minus long, seconds, 4 plus long.
Air. Seconds, 4 plus long. Full shook, press 30,
JUMP into right 5 plus over-- We finished the day and we went
from leading the rally by three or four seconds to now, down to Brandon by 21 seconds. Look, it was disappointing. but again, 21 seconds
knowing what day two challenges are going to bring for everybody,
not just us, we knew that it was far from over. [Engine revving] Day two of New England Forest Rally
we were ready for a battle. You know, we're smelling blood,
you know, we're 100% confident
in our knowledge. [Engine revving] I was just on it,
I was on it from the first start till the end of the day, so we won the first stage
by like six seconds. Through the rest of the morning, we continued to just take
time out of Brandon. We're making the right tire choices. We had the right setup. And the notes were just perfect
for what we were trying to do. [Engine revving] Midday service, we'd reduced that 22 second deficit
down to six seconds. [Engine revving] 30 left 5 minus.
Open 30 S 5 minus, seconds little. Open 200. [Engine revving] Middle of day two, we're starting to see dust
hanging in the areas. We send a message
to race control and warn them, "hey, dust is starting
to be an issue." So we do request an extra gap. [Engine revving] But then, going into the last
major group of stages, there was four more stages very quick service
and then one last stage of the day. But at the end
of the first stage of that loop, Brandon took
like nine seconds out of us. I was a bit discouraged there
for a minute, but I knew the task at hand. So the next two stages,
we took more time back out of them. [Engine revving] And so we were up into the lead by 2.9 seconds. [Engine revving] We find ourselves
actually in the lead with one stage to go. What happens next
is out of our control. The team had asked for an extended
three-minute dust window, but unfortunately,
that was never granted. So what that means
is that Ken and Alex have to drive perfectly
to the notes. Literally driving blind,
hearing the notes, taking the turn and committing
as hard as you can at about 100 plus miles an hour
through the woods. [Engine revving] Brandon takes off in front of us. We have a two-minute gap. I saw some dust hanging
after he left, and I was like, "oh no,
hopefully that isn't an issue." 30 left 5 minus.
Open C2 buck. 50. 50, brake. Once we go through
the first switch back, just like 300 meters
pass the start of the stage, and we see that as dust hanging, we know that it's going
to be a challenge. Little over tread.
Little over tread, and line. Left 5 minus, 30 right 4 plus! I think that driver pairing, get into a situation
where it's do or die in that last stage,
with the dust that they were driving through,
the notes they were writing were 100%
what they were driving to. Open. Air, 30 line, left 5 -- That was definitely
one of his best performances. That Saturday was genuinely the best
driving of my entire career. The best teamwork for Alex and I
together along with the team. And 50 left 5 long, hook, 50!
Right 3 minus long. Left 5 long, hook, 50 right 3
long opens into crest. 150. Line. I'm sorry, man,
I asked for three minutes in there for dust
to clear for the course. So Alex and I drive away
from the final control, not having a concrete answer
if we won or lost. -Do you have a confirmation?
-It's very close. Within one or ten tenths. We actually ended up losing
by 0.9 of a second. New England Forest Rally in the end yeah, it was a disappointment. You're going to have them. I mean, you're never going to sail
through a championship. It was devastating.
It really was. And Ken Block and Alex Gelsomino,
driving the stage of their life this is the best stage
that I probably ever witnessed through the dust
to be within a second on the end of this rally
for everything. I mean, watching the times
and knowing how hard we're pushing
and how scared I am and seeing how fast
these guys were going, it was a true honor
and a privilege. Sometimes you win a lot more
in a failure than you do in a win, and these moments this year
have really pushed me to become the best driver
that I have ever been. So I hate these moments. I really, truly hate
the struggling moments, but I like
what it's helped me become. All right, here we are,
five races in, two of those being a win,
the other two second places. But unfortunately,
Brandon Semenuk has three wins. Ken and Alex
are going to have to go really hard. They're going to need
to win at least two, if not all three of the next races
to really secure that championship. Ojibwe Forest Rally
is located in Minnesota. It's a difficult event because again
we're going now into a rally where the grip and the surfaces
are completely different. The stages are sand,
used to be Ken's least favorite rally, but I think he appreciates it now. [Engine revving] Okay, Ojibwe important point. I'd just like to say, Ojibwe, Open your ****ing restaurants
from more than nine o'clock at night. What the f***? [Engine revving] The Ojibwe Forest Rally
is Travis Pastrana's event. He's won it seven times. He's got to try and win
the last three events of the championship
to win the title. So we are very mindful
in Ojibwe that we basically
not give Travis any time. The thing about this rally
is it's fast, but there's a lot of grip and there's more grip
than you would expect because it's sandy so you can
chuck the car in a lot harder. And I think that's why Travis
likes it so much. He can really overdrive. It actually really works. I need to learn how to drive more
aggressive going into this event. [Engine revving] 4 minus sure, again, 4 minus sure. [Engine revving] Going into stage one,
I knew I needed to really push harder
than I did last year, and I did and I still lost
to Travis by 10 seconds. He was quick on
the first loop of stages. So we knew we had a fight time. [Engine revving] But then I clipped a rock and got a puncture. [Engine revving] I still drove as hard as I could,
and we ended up only losing nine or 10 seconds to Travis. But Ken and Alex were good. They actually reacted to it
and just got on with the job. [Engine revving] Unfortunately for Brandon,
he clipped the same rock I think I did and he ended up losing
a lot more time, 30 or 40 seconds. And then for us,
it was looking quite good if we could overtake Travis
and block Brandon, that was, like,
eight points difference. So now it's game on. And then we start
chipping, you know. And then we win. I believe,
the following two stages. So we reduce the gap down to Travis
to just five and a half seconds. Going in to day two it was going to be
a big battle for Travis. A tight bottle
like that in our sport, you know, it's a recipe for disaster. First stage, I know the stage well. I really like the stage. Water inside, late, late water inside.
20 right 2 plus. [Engine revving] We were able to take
the win on that stage and reduce the lead to Travis down to, I think,
a second and a half. Travis knew the pressure's on. [Engine revving] And unfortunately,
three turns into the next stage, he put it off. I remember starting the stage,
and we could already see Travis running back towards the start. So Ken is like, "hey, he's off." A couple more corners go by
and I tell Ken three minutes lead, Ken.
Three minutes lead. Because that's what our lead
was on Brandon Semenuk. He acknowledged, and from then on
was closing to the end. [Engine revving] 3 plus tie send. Into the 3 plus blade.
Water inside. 20 right 2-- Plus. [Engine revving] We cruised for the rest of the day, just maintained a good pace
with Brandon, and were able
to hold on for the win. All right, here we are.
Two rallies left to go. Semenuk has three wins,
Block has three wins, and we know that Ken and Alex they have the speed on stage. But, unfortunately, they've also
shown a couple incidences and off here and there
to ruin their entire rally. So it all comes down
to every inch of the next race. STPR is North West Pennsylvania,
it's known for the mega fast stages. [Engine revving] The STPR rally, I would say,
it's the most dangerous rally of the US Championship. [Engine revving] It's an event generally that
if you have a crash is going to hurt and it's a place that
due to the high speed, you don't want to go
off the road there We actually had two days
of reccy on this rally, which is a bit unique
for a national round. and we were really confident with what we needed to do
to win this rally. [Engine revving] And now there is two events
left to the end of the season. So again it's another one
that we must do well. We must win. [Engine revving] Alex and I put in a good time
on the first stage, but Brandon Semenuk was only
a half second behind us. It was mega close,
I think it was like half a second difference on the first stage,
and it was like, "oh, here we go,
it's going to be one of those trading seconds
and trading everything." Travis, on the other hand,
took it really easy, and he was over
20 seconds back from us. [Engine revving] Stage two is quite a technical
stage, starts off really fast and then goes into one of the most
dangerous downhill sections. in the entire rally. [Engine revving] I think Ken put both of those boys in the Subaru cars
into a bit of a difficult position where it was, do or die for them,
and then Brandon put the car off. So unfortunately for Brandon,
his rally is pretty much over. So for the rest of the day there
on day one, we had some good time battles
with Travis, but we were able to hold onto
a good lead all the way
until the end of the day. [Engine revving] Going into day two, we just knew
we had to keep Travis at bay. Brandon was able to come back. Subaru got his car repaired. He was able to come back
and run the whole day. [Engine revving] Alex and I put in a really good run on the power stage
and were actually able to beat the two Subaru factory drivers
by around seven seconds each. We won the event during the reccy
because we made some very precise notes,
that weren't too aggressive, you know, but at the same time
allowed us to carry good speed on those stages. Great effort by the team. Definitely one of the better events
for Alex and I for the year. We come away going into
the last event of the year with a two point lead. Here it is,
the final rally of the year, LSPR, aka the Lake
Superior Performance Rally. With only a two point lead, whoever wins takes the championship. So, unfortunately, Ken and Alex can't sit back
and take this one easily. They've got to go for it,
but it's rally. Everything and anything
can go wrong. So Lake Superior Performance Rally
runs in Michigan Upper Peninsula. It's a classic event. The roads are just
absolutely beautiful. They're a little bit wider
than the last rally in Pennsylvania,
but still very fast. [Engine revving] It's a rally that I really love
but kind of hate at the same time. Alex and I have won
the event three times. But I hate it because
it's the site of one of our worst crashes in my career which was back in 2013 when we were battling David Higgins
for the championship title. So quite a scary crash. and a terrible way to end
a great championship battle. But hopefully I can make up
for that this year. [Engine revving] What we need to do in Michigan is what we've done
the last five rounds. Yes, we lost New England by nine tenths of a second
for reasons that were out of our control, but the strategy was
the same as Oregon, Ohio and same as Ojibwe and STPR
so I'm feeling confident, you know. Yes, we are nervous
because we don't want something out of our control, a puncture
or a mechanical, to get in the way of our work. [Engine revving] The boys have done
so much hard work. Everybody has to get to this point. Do we have to convert it now? [Engine revving] Friday morning,
first day of LSPR. It's kind of snowing. Apparently, it's going
to snow this afternoon. It's about doing the best we can.
I know the notes are good. The car's ready and we're ready
for any condition there is, so, let's get it going. And right 6 over crest, 100.
Small crest left 5 in! Repeat, 5 long. [Engine revving] Second 6 final. 5 hook.
Repeat, 5 hook. 50. It started off really well,
you know, sort of final round of the championship,
all this pressure on us. Good job.
-Yeah, you too. [Engine revving] Crest, 70. Caution.
[INDISCERNABLE]. Left 5 plus long, OK. We were second on the road,
which was a good spot, but I was feeling very confident
until the snow started falling. That just throws
this unknown risk into things. [Engine revving] [Engine revving] For the first four stages,
we're able to put a 10-second lead on Brandon,
who we needed to beat. you know, in this rally
to win the championship and things were going really well. We got back to service
after those first four stages. Team made
some good changes in the car. We had a good tire plan. Made some changes that we knew
would hopefully get us more grip for those final
four stages of the day. [Engine revving] So I went out and really attacked
the next two stages. 65.01.1.
-Yes. Keep on chipping away. [Engine revving] -10 flat point three.
-Yes. So I drove my heart out
to really get us in that position. So we were stoked. We were like high-fiving
on the way to stage seven [Engine revving] [Tires skidding]
[Engine revving] -Derek?
-Yeah. Ken's tracker just went
zero miles an hour and engine off. You know, I knew I needed
to just drive conservative, drive clean,
the stage was going really well until I come over a crest
going quite quick. You know, I'm set up
on the left side of the road, and the line kind of happened
to be more on the right. So all of a sudden I was instantly
out of the line and in the mud. So I ended up off in the trees
and with the damage you see there. Are you ****ing kidding?
****ing hell! I honestly couldn't have
been more frustrated. I was dumbfounded that I was
off the road and in the forest. All the work of the entire year, all the team's effort,
Alex's effort, Derek's effort,
everyone to get us to that point and all the driving I did, the best drive I've ever done
in my career all gone because
of that 70 meters of mud. So a real like hero to zero moment
from leading the championship, leading the rally, doing exactly what
I needed to do, to just dumbfounded, devastated on the side of the road. Still end up second
in the championship, but that's not what we fought for, it's not what we all worked
so hard for. The hearts took definitely
a pounding this year through all the things that have
gone up and down and roundabout so when you get to taste success,
you want more success. First place
is the only thing you want. Second place,
oh, didn't want second place. Who wants second place. The wins are memorable. Four wins this year. It has been fantastic,
but the championship has given us those memories this year. The battle
and the fierce competition has made this championship special. Derek once told me
that Ken's biggest problem is he doesn't know
how to drive fast slowly. What that means is that
he's very good at 11 tenths. It's where Ken has won
most of his races is taking risks well beyond what most people
are willing to. But see, there's this key thing
in rally which is attrition, which is just making it to the end, and that means driving at
seven or eight tenths. For some reason,
that's where Ken seems to either lose focus
or just not be fully committed. And when he's not fully committed,
there's just something that's just not firing properly. So as the roads got slick at LSPR, this is where Ken
needed to slow down. Ken will tell you
that he did a little bit, but maybe not enough. Unfortunately, what it resulted in
was a crash that cost them not just the race,
but an entire year of chasing,
actually almost 15, 16 years
of chasing a championship. This is where Ken beats himself up,
saying he should have gone slower. He should have done this,
he should have done that, but unfortunately, his go fast,
risk everything style is why he got to where he is, and sometimes that puts him
at the top of the podium. Other times
it puts him down a ditch. Unfortunately, we got ditches today. [Engine revving]
