WRC Swedish Rally - Day 3

Got to ride along today again. It's pretty wild but for some reason I don't think it's very scary, fun though. Trying to hold a camera still on these roads is not easy.




Filmed for an hour or so on a frozen lake. Pretty nice day on the job. No wind, sunny, and not cold at all.
I also met Mike "MackDawg" McEntire who's in town to film Ken's new car. He was running the most successful snowboard video company back in the 90's but he also made Sick Boys (filmed the first fs boardslide on a handrail EVER and Hokus Pokus (legendary skate video from around 1990).



He was also the first one to hire me to shoot snowboarding back in 1996, so we have a lot of history together, really fun to see him here in Torsby.
More on how I got into the snowboard world here:
http://snowboarding.transworld.net/1000108819/uncategorized/quote-this-pierre-wikberg

We also toured Petter Solbergs giant workshop, impressive.

Day 3 clip here:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=499909352332&saved#!/video/video.php?v=499909352332&oid=139454585764&comments

WRC Rally Sweden - Day 2

Went out to party with some friends in Oslo. While at the bar I met Swedish snow shredders Chris Sörman and Kalle Ohlsson, very random and I got free drinks from the bartender, that's rare at my local watering holes so I was honored to be recognized in a place I haven't been to in 6 months.
Woke up at 6am, ouch, and got in the car to Torsby Sweden (home of playboy / soccer coach Svennis) where we will stay for a few days to try out tires and shoot photos / video of Ken's new WRC car which gets revealed on Wednesday.





Here's the clip from day 2:
http://www.facebook.com/pierrewikberg/posts/132824080117941?ref=notif¬if_t=like#!/video/video.php?v=499350432332&oid=139454585764&comments

On a Ken Block Rally Mission

For the next week - 10 days I'm going to follow my old boss from DC Shoes, Ken Block, around Scandinavia.
He's now a very successful man behind the wheel. If you don't know what he's capable of I suggest you go to YouTube and search for his name.

I'll be uploading videos daily from this WRC event on his Facebook page, so befan him here:
http://www.facebook.com/KenBlockRacing

Here's the video from our first day:


iPhone photos from today:

Sauna view.


Work out with Saydah, MONSTER Rally Team Manager.



View of the Central Station, Opera House and some water.


Icy walk path.





Robin Williams calls biathlons Norwegian drive by's.
Norwegians are very outdoorsy people.

Meeting some Scandinavian snow shredders and Oslo locals for the past days was a huge perk, I really like Oslo (except the homeless people and crack heads / hookers who loiter around the Central Station.

Stay tuned.




Here are some videos of Ken I made for a DC movie in 2007:

Ken playing with his car again.

While I was watching this 7 min clip over 100 people had made comments on it. That has to be some kind of record.


If you´ve been living under a rock and haven´t seen Ken´s past clips I´ll post some at the bottom. Enjoy.




Ken also had 2,000 people give him feedback on a 45 min old post. Also some sort of record?



Last year:




Two years ago:





I shot this last year one afternoon when we tried out a new toy:


Shot this in 3-4 days in NZ in 2007, hectic and fun days.


Top Gear did this sweet piece last year:

Ken Block ties Kimi Räikkönen!

Even though Kimi is new to rally I think it shows that Ken is pretty darn skilled.
This was shot today in Portugal.

Ken is going to the WRC.

He´ll be the first American to race in the WRC and since Subaru aren´t involved with the WRC anymore he´ll be driving a Ford.

Read press release and other things here:
http://www.monsterworldrallyteam.com

New 2009 highlight clip with Ken Block

I´ve made some highlight clips (2006 and 2007 among others) for Ken before and enjoyed it as well as shooting some of his driving. He´s opened up a lot of doors/eyes for rally in America. Mostly through his viral videos. Using a skate/snow marketing in an industry who wouldn´t know what Facebook is if it hit them in face hasn´t hurt his reputation. Some still argue that he´s not a good driver compared to the WRC people and yes sure Solberg might be a better rally driver but Ken has never claimed to be better than him.
If you know that WRC use a completely different race technique (with recce) compared to the American rally circuit you´d know better than comparing the two. And since Ken has friends / staff in the video / photo / video department and thinks along lines the other rally people don´t he´s created a great outlet for his ideas, online videos.. How you can hate on someone who drifts his car around an airport ate call him a bad driver caise the video is editing I have no idea. I do know that a lot of people are morons, and I guess that´s the answer.

Anywho.. here´s Ken´s 2009 highlights. Made by Josh Martelli at Mad Media, enjoy.



If you haven´t seen Ken on Top Gear, check it out here:

New Ken Block clip.

Well it´s a remix of the original Gymkhana 2 video.







Ken gave the footage to some dudes who get very weird in After Effects. Here´s 5 minutes of remixed Gymkhana clips:

Ken drives with Solberg and Galli in Germany.

I really liked this clip.
The rally world is pretty conservative and has always been based on what car and driver can finish in the #1 position.
Ken on the other hand brings an element of interaction and to a degree some rockstardom to the sport. His Youtube videos has reached out to so many people. Nobody is arguing that he´s better then Solberg or Loeb. But he´s a very skilled driver and his marketing ideas with posters, viral video clips and spectacular photo shoots brings an element to rally that that industry has never seen. And some might say, well that´s cool Ken thinks he´s the man and stuff, but I´ve seen the people at the rallies and X-games.. they love talking to him, his pit crew, seeing him and Pastrana to some of these motorheads is like meeting Tiger Woods or Justin Timberlake and I doubt Solberg or Loeb get the same awe from their fans. Since they are more, or only, focused on winning and not so much about spreading the rally lifestyle to the people.
I mean how many rally fans have Loeb posters, Loeb sweaters, Loeb shoes, Loeb beanies or Loeb clips stacked up in their email inbox? Not as many as Ken and Pastrana´s fans...

Anywho..

Here´s a clip with Galli, Solberg and Ken.. hanging out and putting on a show for the Germans. And yes, this is wouldn´t have happened without Ken entering the rally world.
Period.