Ken Block to Drive a Hyundai i20 this season!

I am sure that you must have watched Ken Block’s amazing drifting videos on YouTube. Well, good news for the motorsports enthusiasts, Ken Block will be driving a Hyundai i20 this rally season.

Hoonigan recently confirmed that the legendary driver will be driving i20 WRC modified, complying with ARA regulations for the entire season.

Block, who competed in a Subaru WRX STI for Vermont SportsCar in 2021, will debut in the Hyundai at the 100 Acre Wood Rally in Missouri this weekend. Alex Gelsomino, a long-time co-driver, will join him. Hoonigan had to substantially alter the car to qualify for usage in the ARA championship since WRC cars are constructed to follow a distinct set of rules.

Showing his excitement, Block said, “This might be my favorite season of rally in the U.S. ever. Great competition and I’m driving a modern-era WRC car all year! This is epic! And we’re kicking it off in my favorite rally of the year, The Rally in the 100 Acre Wood. It’s going to be a fun year.”

Despite the fact that Block’s car has been cleared for racing, due to the difficulty to change the original Hyundai transmission, car specification concessions have been made. The WRC car’s hydraulic-initiated shifting is too deeply embedded in the transmission to be switched to the series-mandated mechanically activated shift mechanisms.

To mitigate the advantage the paddle shifters provide Ken Block over his opponents, ARA competition director Preston Osborn has worked with the Hyundai team to impose engine and turbo limits.

The car, a 2019-spec chassis that previously belonged to 2C Competition, will make its debut this weekend in the Salem, MO-based 100 Acre Wood Rally, which Block has won seven times.

Last year at the same rally, Hoonigan Racing Division re-entered the ARA full-time, with Block and co-driver Alex Gelsomino taking to the stages in a McKenna Motorsport-run Koda Fabia R5+ before switching to a Vermont SportsCar-run Subaru WRX STI.

After Barry McKenna entered his M-Sport-built Ford Fiesta WRC in the ARA last year, Block will become the second driver to pilot a 2017-2021 generation WRC vehicle in the competition.