It’s 2018 and Ken Block is busy testing his Ford Escort RS Cosworth ahead of the car’s Oregon Trail debut. But his isn’t the only Ford running. And he’s not the only Block driving.
Junior is waiting. And waiting. Could this be the day Lia Block finally gets to drive a rally car? There have been karts and side-by-sides, but her mom Lucy’s Ford Fiesta R2T is what has really focused her attention.
“She was 11 or 12 at the time,” recalls Derek Dauncey, the man who has overseen the Block family’s rally progression. “She kept saying she wanted to get in the car. To pacify her I said: “You can’t get in the car until you can press the clutch down with the seat in your mom’s position.” That bought us some time.
“On that test, when that time came around, Ken said: “She’s got in the car in the workshop and she can press the clutch down.”
“I told Lia: “If everything goes OK with the rest of the test, we’ll give you a shot.”
“After that, every time the Fiesta came in she was watching and checking there were no technical issues. She kept looking at me as if to say: “Now?”
Derek Dauncey has decades of rallying experience and has guided Lia Block every step of the way in her career to date
“There are some small things when young drivers get in the car for the time: will they stall? Will they understand the directions to back the car out of service? We didn’t brief her at all, she got in the car, reversed it out and drove away.
“And she was bloody quick. Straight up through the gearbox, confident on downshifts and turn in. I wouldn’t have any media there, so it was just Ken, Lucy and myself watching; she came to the corner we were on, backed it in and pebble-dashed us with gravel as she went by.
“Before her first event, I worked with the organisers to set up a test stage properly with a control, clocks, the bannering, to give her an idea of what to expect.
“Her co-driver was with her for four or five runs and then I got in with her and, honestly, if didn’t know her and the family, I would have thought this was somebody else driving. It was a tricky stage, but her ability was astonishing. She was far, far superior to what I’d expected.”
Lia Block made history as the youngest ever winner of an ARA National Championship round at last week’s Ojibwe Forests Rally. But what does Dauncey make of her future, and how did the last two years in F1 Academy help shape her as a driver?
All the answers are in SPIN, The Rally Pod’s episode with Derek Dauncey this week.
