The memory is still vivid for Derek Dauncey, the architect of the Block family's rally progression, of the moment Lia Block first got behind the wheel of a rally car. It was 2018, and Ken Block was busy testing his Ford Escort RS Cosworth ahead of its Oregon Trail debut. But amid that busy schedule, there was one persistent request from his young daughter.
Lia, then 11 or 12, was already drawn to her mother Lucy's Ford Fiesta R2T. "She kept saying she wanted to get in the car. To pacify her I said she couldn't until she could press the clutch down with the seat in her mom's position. That bought us some time," recalls Derek Dauncey.
But time was not on their side. During that test, Ken told Dauncey that Lia could already press the clutch in the workshop. Reluctantly, Dauncey set a condition: if the rest of the test went smoothly, Lia would get her shot. From then on, every time the Fiesta came in, Lia was watching, checking for any technical issues. "She kept looking at me as if to say: 'Now?'"
When her moment finally came, Lia showed a natural talent that surprised everyone. "There are some small things when young drivers get in the car for the first 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, reversed out, and drove away. And she was bloody quick. Straight up through the gearbox, confident on downshifts and turn-in," Dauncey explained.
At that moment, only Ken, Lucy, and Dauncey were watching. No media present, Lia attacked the corners in a way that left them in awe. "She came to the corner we were on, backed it in, and pebble-dashed us with gravel as she went by," he added.
Before her first event, Dauncey deliberately set up a test stage properly with controls, clocks, and bannering to give her a taste of what to expect. "Her co-driver was with her for four or five runs, and then I got in with her. Honestly, if I 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," he said.
This story forms the backdrop to the history Lia Block just made last week: becoming the youngest ever winner of an ARA National Championship round at the 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.
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