The last few times I’ve written to you guys I have not exactly had good news to pass along. Heading into it, I was hoping that STPR (Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally) was going to be the rally that changed my luck. It’s been a real struggle thus far this season (I have one win and 3 DNF’s!) and its tough doing these event diaries when things aren’t going so great. It’s been a difficult year and I was certainly hoping to get back on track with some better finishes. So my plan was to do this at one of the toughest events of events of the year — STPR It’s a prestigious and old event here in the U.S. (Note: The STPR event has been going on since 1977) and it’s one of the toughest of our season.

Going into the STPR, I didn’t necessarily put pressure on myself; it was more of just making sure that I did everything possible to be ready for the event, both mentally and physically. I paid extra special attention to the recce and the shakedown and being ready for the event with the goal in mind that I needed a good result. I really wanted to win.

Right from the first stage on Friday, everything went really, really well. All the hard work paid off with a good performance on stages one, two and three on the first day. I was able to drive really well and got a lead and won all three stages. On top of al that, all my top competitors really ran into some problems. So by the end off day one, after three stages, I had a minute lead. Some of that was some good luck and some of it was hard work and preparation. I was really stoked that it went that well. I was feeling really good in the car. The way the car is set-up for me right now is very, very good and I just felt comfortable from the word go and everything just clicked. Luckily for me, I had just a good, clean run and my competitors had some problems, so I ended up with a ridiculously big lead after just three stages and was able to just drive quick and clean.

On Saturday morning — day two of the rally — I was feeling pretty confident. The way I felt in the car was really, really good and I felt comfortable on the stages. I just wanted to go out and drive my race and wanted to leave the guys behind me and make sure I kept ahead of them. That really went well. I ended up winning several of the stages on Saturday and it just all worked out really well. It was an event that, if you time something in your mind and build a minute lead and then improve on it on day two, it’s a dream come true as far as rally goes. I was really happy that it worked out that well.

I really felt great in the car throughout the entire rally. I mean any driver that races at a high level has to be very comfortable in their equipment and everything has to happen at a very subconscious level because you’re moving so quick. So that flow and that feeling just worked very well for me this past weekend. That was really important in a rally like this because the roads are so fast and they’re so dangerous. These were really some of the most technical roads of our championship, being that they’re really tough roads with trees literally right on the edge of the road. There are a lot of other roads we compete on — like the 100 Acre Woods (which Block won last February) — that have wider roads with more of a buffer on the edge; like a berm or some shrubbery before you get to these big trees. At STPR, the trees are litteraly on the edge of the road and you can hit them very, very easily if you put yourself in the wrong place and the wrong time. Getting the notes right when we did the recce was very, very important. From those notes, you have to be able to push and go as fast as you can in the race and calculate where want to push and where you don’t is just really important to having a good event there. It’s definitely a unique challenge in those Pennsylvania forests.

This wasn’t the most satisfying win for me because it wasn’t a very tight battle. That’s really the most satisfying type win — the type when you have a really tight battle and you come out on top. This win was more of a relief-type win (laughter). I’ve had such a struggle this year from bad luck that it just felt good to go out there and run the speeds that I wanted and have some success. I am really happy to win the STPR, like I said before, it’s one of the toughest events in our championship and I’m just glad it all went so well.

My next race is the Baie Des Chaleurs rally, which is up in Canada. That’ll be in two and a half weeks. Then I’ll have the New England Forrest Rally event in mid-July. And then the weekend before the X Games in Los Angeles, I have another event made for spectators and TV event called the Baja 300 Powerdays in Germany. I’m actually very busy leading right up to the X Games, but its all really good time in the car and really good experience. I’m really looking forward to all of it, and of course, I’ll take you guys along for the ride. So keep an eye out for my next diary piece and I’ll let you in how exactly things down. It should all be pretty interesting. Thanks for reading.

By Ken Block as told to Eric Johnson

photos: Lars Gange/Subaru.com/Rally