RE: discovered rally
Can't say when I first heard about rally for certain as I also have older brothers. I raced slot cars as a kid and so did Len Picton who wrote a rally newsletter, also, Walt Kammer was a pioneer in running them (HIS) and he lives here, I even worked on rally cars at the Fiat dealership I worked at, not 'cause I wanted to but because it was a job.
But, when I was deciding which path to take to become a famous pro driver, I considered rally, but (in '76) saw the most famous US rally driver at Lime Rock running an Escort like my team was. He wasn't getting anywhere in rally and he was the best, so I went road-racing, my goal was to impress Colin into signing me to F1.
The jerk died and my master plan, foiled.
20 years of road-racing followed, finally a bad crash, drives evaporated during the recovery (if you aren't seen, you aren't considered alive) and I needed to self-fund a car. At PRI, Dennis Dean, suggested pro rally and introduced me to his little helper, KS. Dennis swore finding a co-driver is easy (I was skeptical) and I ran a couple rallyXs to check it out. Went to Ivor's to see if my back could take it, it could. Bought a car like Pat's, Kendall fixed me up with Shindle and I attended my first rally ever by sitting on the starting line in TN.
rz