Following a relatively successful day 1 of the final round of the 2013 Rally America championship, the Lake Superior Performance Rally, Hoonigan Racing Division’s Ken Block and Alex Gelsomino started the day sitting just over 13 seconds out of first place—the position they needed to be in to be able to win the overall championship.
Starting the day behind, Block was forced to turn it up and charge as hard as he could to close the gap to frontrunner David Higgins. After the morning stages, Block had managed to halve Higgins’ lead, taking over 6 seconds out of his lead. Unfortunately, after mid-day service, Block came through on SS12 after a spectator stage into a 5 minus corner, which then narrowed upon the exit. Going flat out due to not having any danger in the turn marked in his notes, Block went a little wide through the narrowing exit and dropped a rear wheel off. From there the car got caught up on a dirt lump that was hidden in the weeds alongside the road, which catapulted the car into the air, sending it into a multiple rotation roll and ending their championship bid.
“I’m gutted with how today ended,” said Block. “We were really charging hard today and were actively closing the gap on David [Higgins]. Unfortunately I didn’t have that corner marked in my notes as dangerous and I was going flat out. I got caught out, it sucks, it’s definitely not how I wanted to end the season, especially with the championship within reach. But, that’s how racing goes some days. Luckily both Alex and I are ok and hopefully we’ll be back to contest for the championship again next season.”
While Block’s 2013 Rally America season is over, he still finishes the season 2nd overall in the championship, marking his third 2nd overall in the Rally America series. He still has two competitive events left on his calendar. Catch him in Madrid, Spain, on November 2nd at the Monster Energy Gymkhana GRID European Gauntlet finale, then see him race in the final Global RallyCross event of the season in Las Vegas on November 8th.
