Travis Pastrana returns for Hoonigan’s Gymkhana 2025: Aussie Shred. Directed by Brian Scotto and Produced by Diego Espana under 321 Action Action.

Gymkhana, means many things to me. In 2004, as a 24 year old filmmaker – watching Ken Block slide his Subaru around El Toro Marine Corps Air Station altered what I thought was possible with a car. At that point in my life, I was filming: Formula Drift, grassroots drifting, time attack, drag racing, and car builds for Rice Boy Tv. Industries were shifting from print to digital and trying to understand the place of online video in a world that was used to broadcast television and traditional media.

The sheer fact that I knew of Ken Block – at all, speaks a lot to his significance in the culture of “action sports” – I was an aggressive rollerblader who was usually trying to dodge errant skateboards at the local skatepark. Rollerblading was skateboarding’s weird cousin. It had it’s own culture, heroes, and brands that were distinctly not mainstream in the way DC Shoes and skateboarding were in the 90’s or early 2000’s. I’m not trying to say I was counter culture or cool in any way – I just couldn’t kick flip and found my years of ice skating and playing hockey made sliding a ledge on inline skates a lot easier. DC Shoes was cool, it’s advertising was iconic and it elevated it’s athletes to a level that was reserved for traditional stick and ball superstars. I didn’t watch skateboard videos but I had a DC poster of Danny Way dropping from a helicopter into a halfpipe – because it represented something bigger.

Back to the screen of my Mac Pro computer in 2004… Gymkhana Practice. The abandoned empty hangers, over grown tarmac runways and taxiways of the air base, door chime with keys in ignition, and the sound of a flat four Subaru engine with unequal length headers rumbling to life. Then there is Ken Block, mugging at the camera – he’s kind of serious however what follows is even more intense. I had never seen a car thrown around with such precision and paradoxically total disrespect at the same time.

Memorably Ken slides within the tight confines of a box elegantly, pushes the WRX backwards in a slide around a cone with with unbelievable front end proximity, and then slides a heli pad circle tracking deeper into the outside wall – digging the back bumper into the wooden surround and smashing it into shrapnel. He kicks up a trail of all wheel drive tire smoke and dust through each obstacle. It’s not glamorous, the audio is blown out – the exhaust noise is too much for the camera’s microphone, the imagery is raw and honest – it’s the cinema verte of Ken flogging the WRX. It’s imperfect and perfect all at the same time. It’s the irony of Ken sliding past a “drive slow” sign or doing donuts around co-director Josh Martelli on a Segway. I found myself wondering what the hell I just watched while also finding the familiarity of a skateboard or snowboard video part.

This is Ken’s marketing skills and brand building, that made his business ventures a success, applied to his own personal aspirations. It was turning the legend building on the man in the mirror. Without being hyperbolic the first Gymkhana altered advertising, marketing, driver sponsorship, and automotive filmmaking moving forward. A driver’s worth was no longer measured solely in podiums and championship points – but in impressions, views, and engagement. Advertising agencies had Gymkhana in their reference decks and car commercials showed performance in smokey tarmac slides. Look at the number of massive brand partners who joined Ken Block’s racing program as sponsors in the short years after the release of Gymkhana. Imagine a gentleman driver, who started in his late 30’s rallying becoming one of the most famous drivers in the world.

Six years after watching Gymkhana Practice, I was asked to join the production of Gymkhana Seven in Los Angeles as a Camera Operator. It was a milestone for me to get to be a part of a series that meant so much to me as an automotive filmmaker. It felt like a validation of my own work to be asked and an opportunity to bring the enthusiasm and appreciation I had for the series to help contribute my own piece to the legacy. 12 Gymkhana projects later, 6 as a Camera Operator and 6 as Director of Photography – I feel like my contributions as one of the “men behind the curtain” are tangible and invisible which is exactly how they should be.

In 2025, almost three years since Ken Block passed away – writing about what was so captivating about 2008’s Gymkhana Practice feels bittersweet and sentimentally nostalgic. We (myself and Director Brian Scotto) tried a number of things with Electrikhana 2 (2023) that didn’t work how we had hoped. We made the decision to compose the film to extract a 9×16 frame out of our 16×9 capture for vertical social media – the vertical cut downs never happened. I am grateful for the opportunities that Ken, Scotto, and Hoonigan provided me over the years – but was frustrated that Electrikhana 2 might be the final Gymkhana film. Especially knowing that Ken was eager to make other film projects in the future. So when Scotto mentioned that he was approached to do the third and final Travis Pastrana Gymkhana I insisted that we do it. I hope as a fan of the Gymkhana series that this isn’t the final one. Time will tell and I’m at peace with closing this chapter with the enthusiasm and spirit of the first. I truly hope you enjoy it and if it inspires people the way that the original did for me – it was worth it.