Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Ken Block to Rally with Ford...

In one of the worst kept secrets in motorsports, Ken Block made it official today that he and his primary sponsor, Monster Energy, are moving to Ford. Additionally, not only will KB be running in the Rally America series but will run WRC events as well. Now personally I think he is in over his head in the WRC. KB ran consistently as a second fiddle to Travis Pastrana who fared quite poorly in the production class of races connected to the WRC (not nearly the top level of competition) during his brief stints with Subaru in international competition. Sure, KB will bring lots of press and fans to the events but seriously compete at that level? Not likely.

On the positive side, this will bring Ford into the fold for competition for the Rally America series which is precisely what that series needs. After seeing Subaru and TP run away with the championship year after year it had gotten kind of stale. With the top two drivers (TP and KB) now on seperate teams with seperate manufacturers it gives the series a proper dichotomy with which to market itself. The only question I have here is what Monster does with Dave Mirra seeing that as far as I know he is still with Subaru and partnered with TP and the Vermont Sports Car guys...Do they dump him outright? Do they continue supporting two competing teams? Your guess is as good as mine but it should make for a good season of Rallying at least here stateside...

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