On Instagram Lia Block announced that she and Rhiannon Gelsomino had officially earned their 2023 ARA Open 2WD rally championship, with the Lake Superior Performance Rally round still to go in the season. With a convoluted points structure, the pair couldn’t announce their victory official until this week, despite last competing many months ago. In her debut season in a newly-built Subaru BRZ, Block drove to four wins and a runner-up in style, sporting a tribute livery to her late father’s first snow camo livery in the pre-Gymkhana days.
Ken Block, to his credit, was an incredibly fast rallyist, taking four separate runner-up season finishes in American rally, both ARA and the now-defunct Rally America. When he was racing for the Subaru team from 2005 to 2008, he finished second in the championship twice to teammate Travis Pastrana (2006 and 2008). He finished second again in 2013 running a Ford Fiesta, beat out only by the indomitable David Higgins.
Ken had all but clinched the 2022 ARA championship, bringing a no-expense-spared Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC car to the regional American series. A handful of incidents, not all his fault, wrenched the championship from his hands, however. At the 100 Acre Wood rally Block was over a minute to the good on the final stage when he hit a deer and lost the rally by mere seconds. Round 3 saw Block hit a tree. At the New England Forest Rally the Subaru driver Brandon Semenuk beat Block by under a second. Heading into the final round Block was 17 points ahead of Semenuk, but lost the rally with a crash on the final stage. Heartbreak.
It goes without saying that Ken would surely be proud of his daughter (if not a little jealous) for not only carrying on his legacy but proving herself damn fast. And likewise, Rhiannon Gelsomino is the wife of Ken’s long-time co-driver Alex Gelsomino. Rhiannon also co-drove with Travis Pastrana to championships in the past.
Lia raced a handful of rallies with ARA in 2022, running a FWD Ford Fiesta to get her driving figured out. This year, in addition to her ARA championship, Lia pushed hard into the rally world, entering the Extreme E championship with Carl Cox Motorsport alongside Timo Schieder, and running a few rounds of the Nitro Rallycross Championship, as well as running an exhibition drive of Ken’s Hoonapigasus at Pikes Peak. She’s got a lot of talent, and likely will continue to push herself to get better with every year.
Her most recent Instagram post (above) is a teaser that seems to indicate she’s stepping up to the Open 4WD class to challenge for overall victory at LSPR in Michigan’s UP in a couple of weeks. It’s difficult to tell exactly what car this is, but the livery does match Ken’s 2022 effort Hyundai WRC car. That would be a hell of a jump from a modified BRZ.