Coming into Rally America’s opening season event, Sno*Drift, Hoonigan Racing Division’s Ken Block had his eyes on simply finishing the race in a conservative matter and scoring points to aid in his goal of winning the 2013 Championship. Unfortunately for Block, those plans went south when his HFHV Fiesta suffered an electrical issue, forcing him and co-driver Alex Gelsomino to retire prior to the start of SS3 of day one of racing, where they’d been sitting a few tenths out of second place.

“I’m gutted,” said Block. “We came out here and tested heavily before the event and things went really well. This is a race where my expectations were fairly low, as we run on street tires on snow and ice instead of proper studded tires. So, my goal was to simply finish safely and score some points to aid in my goal of taking the championship. To have those goals made more difficult by something stupid like an electrical issue is really frustrating. But, my team has chased down the problem and gotten the car up and running again, so we’ll be back out there tomorrow, just with a focus on having fun since we’ll be facing a 20 minute penalty under Super Rally rules.”

To keep up to date with Block’s progress on Saturday’s stages at Sno*Drift, follow along here, on Facebook and at Hoonigan Racing Division’s Twitter feed.