Ford and Ken Block have parted ways after 10 years

1 of Ford’s star drivers, Ken Block, is parting approaches with the Blue Oval soon after 10 a long time. The partnership is ending amicably, with the two Block and Ford CEO Jim Farley sending out thanks by using social media.

“I want to thank you for anything you have performed for the company and how very pleased we are of anything that you have attained,” Farley mentioned in a YouTube online video filled with online video clips of Block’s automotive stunts.

Block has also provided a statement, from his Hoonigan Racing web-site, saying “It’s simply just been a desire come correct to get the job done with the company that created the truck that my Dad drove when I was a teen. I’m super appreciative to Ford for the aid above the a long time, but I am also hunting ahead to what an unrestricted 2021 holds, and the potential to unfold my wings a little bit and engage in with a whole lot other toys.”

Some of those other toys may possibly include things like vehicles this kind of as the Audi Quattro S1 Team B rally vehicle, which Block not long ago tweeted a photograph of, saying, “1 of my favored rally vehicles of all time … and now with my open marriage with Ford, I may possibly get to eventually drive a single!”

Block now calls himself a “absolutely free agent,” as the conclusion of the partnership implies he will now be able to drive non-Ford vehicles on digital camera. Block was catapulted into around the world fame with the Gymkhana sequence, which he commenced with his a Subaru WRX STI, a vehicle he however owns. Ford snatched Block away from Subaru, and put him in the driver’s seat of a Fiesta WRC vehicle.

Which of my initially a few Gymkhana vehicles is your favored? pic.twitter.com/IdIBB8GrzU

— Ken Block (@kblock43)
January nine, 2021

In his 10 years with Ford, Block continued his Gymkhana online video sequence and created vehicles this kind of as the all-wheel-drive, 1,400-horsepower ’65 Mustang-bodied Hoonicorn and the Ford F-a hundred and fifty-centered Hoonitruck. Past December, Block passed the Gymkhana baton to Travis Pastrana and back again to Subaru.

What the upcoming holds for Block is anyone’s guess, but it really is positive to be exciting and will most likely entail loads of tire smoke.