Travis Pastrana and the Hoonigan crew turned heads when they arrived in Australia in early October, and it soon became apparent they were here for one reason: to film a new Gymkhana video.
The series was started in 2008 by DC Shoes founder and rally driver Ken Block, who, along with friend and later Hoonigan business partner Brian Scotto, revolutionised online car videos with wild stunts, eventually developing a 10-video-strong series.
Following Block’s untimely passing in a snowmobile crash in 2023, long-time friend, former teammate and action sports star Travis Pastrana has taken up the mantle of keeping the Gymkhana legacy alive, with the new film ‘Aussie Shred’ being his second in the series.
The film itself starts off in Broken Hill, before travelling to Bathurst, back to Broken Hill and finishing in Sydney, though it was in the New South Wales capital where shooting kicked off.
Among the Australian stars making a cameo were Sydney-based YouTube duo Blair Joscelyne (aka Moog) and Marty Mulholland, better known as Mighty Car Mods.
The pair made a brief appearance with Marty’s two-door GC8 Subaru Impreza WRX STI, and posted about their experience in a separate video, detailing some of the behind the scenes work that went into Aussie Shred.
Before filming kicked off, Brian Scotto – serving as the video’s director – told the crew how important Aussie Shred was, as it was the continuation of a project nine years in the making.
“This particular location, not just White Bay but the whole area, it’s a little bit of a redemption or revenge story,” Scotto said.
“We came here nine years ago (2016) to make a film, we came here twice, and for reasons we don’t need to get into, we were told no, in the end.”
“Unfortunately, tragically, Ken Block, who was our driver, the mind behind all this and my partner in Hoonigan, is not here anymore, but I feel like we’re doing this for Ken.
“This is the film he wanted to see happen, we were really pissed that this didn’t happen. We made a bunch of stickers that said ‘Banned Down Under’.
“We always wanted to come back here. We’re back here. Let’s do it for Ken.”
Those reasons Scotto mentions were the New South Wales Police stepping in at the 11th hour of planning to block Hoonigan, Block and Scotto from filming Gymkhana Nine in Sydney.
The ninth Gymkhana film was meant to be a tie-in with the Forza Horizon 3 video game, itself based in Australia and featuring Block’s heavily modified Ford Focus RS rally car.
After applying for permits to film on public and private land, New South Wales Police blocked the applications, and eventually would only allow filming to take place on Cockatoo Island, at restricted speeds.
Why? At the time, NSW was cracking down on hoons, and deemed a potential Gymkhana film to be glorifying anti-social driving. At that point in time, there had already been Gymkhana videos made in downtown San Francisco and Los Angeles.
This led to filming being moved to Buffalo, New York, with the subsequent video (titled GYMKHANA NINE: Raw Industrial Playground) receiving 62 million views, since its 2016 release, while promoting the Australia-based Forza Horizon 3 video game.
The new Aussie Shred film seemingly faced less red tape, and even saw Hoonigan collaborate with the Supercars Championship to film on the Bathurst 1000 race week, culminating in a number of race cars featuring in the video.
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