Hoonigan has announced that Travis Pastrana will star in the 2020 instalment of Ken Block’s popular Gymkhana video series.
Pastrana, who has appeared in a number of the previous Gymkhana instalments, will drive in the video in an expanded capacity that marks the first time in the series that Block has not played a central role.
The news came following the pair’s ‘Gymkhana Grid: Stay at Home Edition’ video challenge in which Block, driving a Can-Am Off-road vehicle, created a Gymkhana video with his family at the Hoonigan shop, and challenged Pastrana to do the same with his family.
“I’d love to see your take on a real Gymkhana now we’ve seen what you do with a Can-Am. It’s time to see a full Gymkhana video from Travis,” Block said to Pastrana in a call broadcasted live on Hoonigan’s YouTube page.
“I will give you my entire crew, I will give you my entire editing … everything. “I think it’s time,” Block said.
Brian Scotto, Hoonigan’s co-founder and chief creative officer who was also in the call, added: “We’re going to send you the rulebook. You’ll have to read it, you’ve got to sign off on it, but that’s it. Gymkhana for 2020 is yours. You’re officially taking over Gymkhana.”
The plan has been in the works for some time, with Block’s Hoonigan Racing Division operation, Subaru, and its factory racing partner Vermont SportsCar all working behind the scenes on the project. Pastrana however had been kept out of the loop.
A location for the video, set to be filmed before the end of the year, has not yet been decided but Subaru is already thought to have started work on a specialist car for the project.
The 10-part Gymkhana series has almost 500 million views to date, with the San Francisco-based fifth installment that features a cameo from Pastrana notching up 105.5 million alone. It has also spawned the Climbkhana and Terrakhana spinoffs, as well as an Amazon Prime video series documenting the making of the 10th installment in the series – another edition that Pastrana briefly appeared in.
While Pastrana will take Block’s place for the 11th part of the series, in the same video in which the announcement was made, it was teased that Block could return for future editions of the Gymkhana series in the future.
Photo: Hoonigan
