-
Alyssa RoenigkESPN
Professional rally driver Ken Block, the Hoonigan and DC Sneakers co-founder who revolutionized motion sports activities advertising and motorsports filmmaking, died in a snowmobile accident close to his residence in Utah on Monday. He was 55.
Hoonigan Industries confirmed Block’s demise in an announcement posted to its social media channels.
“It is with deepest regrets that we are able to verify that Ken Block handed away in a snowmobile accident right now,” the assertion learn. “Ken was a visionary, a pioneer and an icon. And most significantly, a father and husband. He might be extremely missed.”
Block co-founded the skateboard model DC Sneakers in 1984. After promoting the corporate in 2004, Block famously transitioned from advertising govt to some of the recognizable names in motorsports. Solely 5 years after getting behind the wheel of a rally automobile, he turned a World Rally and Rally America podium menace and a five-time X Video games medalist in RallyCross.
In 2008, Block posted the primary of 10 Gymkhana movies to YouTube, which featured him stunt driving, drifting and creatively interacting together with his surroundings, and practically broke the web. Greater than 1 billion views later, his Hoonigan YouTube channel turned the preferred in motorsports historical past.
“Ken was a legend in his means to take a imaginative and prescient and make it a actuality. He created an business,” Steve Arpin, Block’s teammate within the Nitro RallyCross sequence, informed ESPN. “However for those who have been fortunate sufficient to know him, that is the place the perfect elements of Ken surfaced. He handled his pals like gold and would create alternatives for whoever needed to place within the work. He was all the pieces this world wants extra of, and simply occurred to do a variety of actually cool stuff on the facet.”
An avid motion sports activities fanatic, Block was an envoy for the business and a household man who, in 2022, raced the American Rally Affiliation Championship alongside his spouse, Lucy, and their 16-year-old daughter, Lia.
“This yr, Ken was so completely happy. On the races, he was completely happy to be racing with Lucy and to have his daughter racing and to have his youngsters at a lot of the races,” motion sports activities icon Travis Pastrana informed ESPN. “Few folks get to the purpose of their lives the place all the pieces comes collectively, and to have all of it taken away like that is devastating.”