Ken Block, who is considered the father of Gymkhana, is usually money when you put him behind the wheel of a drift car. He’s the closest you can get to a sure thing when it comes to these types of things, so to see him crash a car -- let alone the 1965 Ford Mustang Gymkhana 7 that he himself had a hand in building -- is a little nerve wracking to the senses. But that’s exactly what happened at the recent Gymkhana Grid series that took place at the Santa Pod Raceway in Northamptonshire, UK.

The video->ke278 starts off in typical Ken Block fashion as he performs a series of donuts to the delight of the crowd. That goes on for a few seconds before the scene shifts to what looks like a friendly race around the track between Block and another competitor. That’s when things take a turn for the worse as Block misjudges the first corner, sending the car known as the Hoonicorn straight into the temporary barriers.

The reaction of the crowd pretty much tells you how surprising it is to see Block lose control of the Hoonicorn, resulting in this rather embarrassing episode. Fortunately, neither Block nor the Hoonicorn sustained significant damage from the miscue. The car received a few nicks in the fenders, but for the most part, the Hoonicorn will live to see another day. That’s great news for fans of Block and the 845-horsepower, all-wheel-drive drift monster. Hopefully, nothing of this sort happens to the Hoonicorn from this point forward. It would be a shame if this fully customized drifting destroyer ends up in the barricades again.

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Why it matters

Watching Ken Block crash a drift car is like watching LeBron James miss a dunk. It just doesn’t happen. Then again, there will be some exceptions, as is the case for Block losing control of the Hoonicorn and introducing it to the temporary barriers. I can tell you that Block and the Hoonicorn were lucky to come out of it relatively unscathed, except for Block’s bruised ego that is.

Watch the video again and the you might notice how forceful the collision between car and barrier actually was. Block’s lucky that those barriers were soft enough to absorb the impact without dealing too much damage of their own to the Hoonicorn. Had those blocks been a little stiffer, the car might have received significant damage to the front. More importantly, Block might have gotten himself hurt. That would’ve put a different take on the crash if it resulted in a serious injury to the popular drifter. At least we can watch the video over and over again with a chuckle.

I’m confident that this was a one-off mistake from one of the most sure-handed drifters in the world. Ken Block doesn’t lose lose control of his cars very often, but when he does, he still finds a way to make it look cool. That's the kind of cache Ken Block has among the die-hard fans of Gymkhana. Let's just hope that he becomes a little more careful in his next go-around with the Hoonicorn.

1965 Ford Mustang Gymkhana

Read more about the 1965 Ford Mustang Gymkhana here.