July 27th, 2014, Charlotte NC: Coming off of a podium finish last week at GRC New York, Ken Block stormed into Charlotte this past weekend focused on one thing: Taking first place. And he did so, masterfully dominating the entire weekend at the track.
Block qualified first overall on Friday afternoon, setting himself up nicely for his heats later that day. Block then took control of both heats, establishing himself as the man to beat on Charlotte Motor Speedway’s Dirt Track. By taking first in both of Friday night’s heats—as well as being the top qualifier that morning—Block headed into Saturday’s main events in solid position.
Saturday saw Block return to the dirt and continue to give lessons on being fast on a loose surface. Utilizing his skills acquired through years of stage rally racing, Block laid down a masterful performance on Saturday, winning his semi-final by four seconds and absolutely dominating the field in the final by taking the overall win by seven seconds.
“This was an awesome weekend of rallycross for myself,” said Block. “My team did an amazing job getting my Ford Fiesta ST RX43 ready for racing here on this track and it felt great to be racing on more gravel and dirt instead of mostly tarmac. I’m really at home on surfaces like this and I think it showed with both my results and how quickly we got car setup for this course. I’m absolutely stoked on winning here and it feels great to build on my podium finish last weekend in New York. Hopefully I can continue that trend when we hit Daytona next month and keep scoring points in this championship.”
In the modern era of Global Rallycross with the format now being qualifying, two rounds of heats, a semi-final and a final, Block is the first driver in the history of the sport to take first in all five aspects of the race weekend. With his win, Block moves up to 5th overall in the 2014 GRC points standings (only 9 points out of 3rd place) with five races left to go.
Block’s next event is this in Daytona, Florida, the weekend of August 23rd.
