Below are some replies a question poised on
Rally-l Discussion List
"How did you get into Rally?"
I learned about rallying while I was competing
at an autocross. A friend, soon to be my navigator, walked up and asked
"Hey, Lesley, do you want to do a rally with me?" I asked,
"What is a rally?" Karen said, "Don't worry - you'll like
it. You can drive, and I'll navigate."
So I went to my first rally, which was a trap event. Since my hobby in
college was driving my Audi Fox as fast as I could down all the roads within an
hours radius, I knew all the roads on the rally so we didn't get lost. We
ran trap rallies for a couple of years, but my favorite event each year
was one with a tulip-format event and exact mileages to the intersections.
Karen thought they were boring, because the navigator didn't have to work hard
to figure out which way to turn. I thought the events were *great* because
I got to drive much faster, and had a ball flinging the Audi around on the
roads. Then we discovered the NEPRO series of tulip-format events.
They were almost all dirt and relatively
high-speed. I met the Houseals, who would come to the events in their PRO
Rally car, and practice for the races. I wanted to learn absolutely
everything about PRO Rally, and bugged them endlessly with question after
question, and visited them often where they lived in Lansdale. I crewed
for them at a couple of races, and decided that I had to drive in ProRallies,
too.
I bought an old Datsun 510, and tried to turn it into a rally car. I put a
rollcage and harnesses in, and skipped classes to go out to Detroit for a rally
school that was being held there. Jon Woodner was one of the instructors
there, and he was a really great guy. I set one of the fastest stage times
on a mini-stage that Jon had set up. His comment to me was:"Lesley,
you're a really fast driver, but you've got to get a real car." I've
often wondered since then what he would say about the Dodge Charger ;-)))
Since I was a college student, I couldn't really afford to go rallying, so I
never got a chance to race until years later.
Actually, it is because of Diane Houseal and Ed Brennan that I finally got my
opportunity to race. I remember that a month or so before, I was visiting
with them and admitted that I was giving up on my dream of racing. I just
couldn't make it work on my budget, it seemed so unattainable. I guess
Diane and Ed had a chat, and decided that they could whip Ed's old Saab 99 into
shape and get it ready for the Ski Sawmill Rally Right weekend, which Boyd Smith
organized at the time. I borrowed Ed's Saab to go to the school, and had
Mark Everett as an instructor. I'll never forget
walking in to the finish after the rally, and somebody said "Lesley,
congratulations on finishing your first race!" I was on cloud nine.
It felt absolutely great!
Since then, I took over organizing the Rally Right school, to help other people
get into the sport. I really love the sport, and all the people that I
have met. I think that the people associated with rallying in North
America are some of the nicest people you'll ever meet. And it's an
opinion shared by "outsiders" that I have brought to the events with
me.
They all say the same thing, "I can't believe how nice everyone was!"
So, that's how I found out about rallying, and finally got to go racing myself!
Lesley
Shelby East Dodge Charger #38
Early Production Class
Rabbit! SCCA Olympus WRC 1986
Backwards Into Rally
My name is Bob Barrall and I got
started in rallying in a very backwards kind of way. Back in 1985 I bought
a VW GTI and suddenly driving was fun and not just a way to get from point A to
point B. I and my girlfriend at the time entered a little sign hunt rally
and had a good time. A few weeks later we entered one in NJ near where she
worked and I met there a whole bunch of TSD rally crazies including a fella who
used to drive for some of the blind groups my father was active with in the
60's. Soon I was hooked on TSD rallies and trap rallies and ran all over
the PA, NJ area and up into
New England.I had read about this thing called PRO Rally but didn't really know
what it was about so I went one weekend with Joe Kwietek to work the Tiadaghton
'90 PRO Rally. What a blast! I went to STPR a few weeks later and soon
joined BMR and meet up with folks like Dean Fry and Leslie and all the BMR
crazies. One day Gerry Brinkman called me up and asked if I wanted to ride
the right hand seat for STPR. I had crewed for him at his first STPR and his
co-driver had broken his collar bone when he was hit by a drunk driver. I
ordered my "silly suit" the next day. We ran Sawmill in Dean's old
Subee DL and I was hooked. This has got to be the greatest motorsport on
earth with the nicest folks I have ever encountered. It doesn't matter if
it's a Saturday sign hunt or a National Pro Rally, there is something about the
rally community that is unique and special. I look forward to
seeing everyone in Maine.
wheels down, roof up :-)
Bob
Hi, my name is Buck Rozelle and I have been a
"silent" member of this list for about one year.
I live in West Wyoming, PA (near Wilkes-Barre). Wellsboro is about a two hour
drive in my '93 Chevy Blazer. I have lived in Northeast PA most of my life. A
little over ten years ago, I met a guy named Bob Nace when I was a casual
carrier with the United States Postal Service. He said that his
step-father-in-law was John Robinson. He and took me and another friend to
the STPR in 1986 and 1987. At the time, I was also working for the local
newspaper, covering motor sports.
Before that, I had been spectator at Formula One at Watkins Glen ('79 and '80),
IMSA at Daytona, Sebring, Miami and Pocono International Raceway (PIR is about
30 minutes from our house), Top Fuel at Maple Grove (during Joe Amato's reign),
NASCAR at Pocono and Dover (there is nothing like the sound of forty 'merican
V8s screaming by!), CART at Pocono (scary fast, wish they would come back to
Pocono) and Nazareth (about 90 minutes from my house), and Trans Am at Lime Rock
(nice track).
They only thing I can remember about STPR in '86 and '87 is that finding the
cars was an adventure and I loved every minute of it! I remember parking my '72
Monte Carlo somewhere on a dirt road (off the road of course) and hiding
behind a tree while the cars came by at night, in the pouring rain. I thought
that it was the most interesting form of motor racing. I thoroughly enjoyed STPR
in '99 and would like to come back in '00 as a competitor. My son and I are
working on getting up to Maine for the next ProRally.
Picked up a Flyer
Alex: In 1965 I picked up a flyer at the
print center of one of the Boeing Company offices in Seattle that advertised a
"rally", at the time I was involved the sport of "Drag
Racing" with a factory prepared Pontiac GTO.... The flyer said that the
rally lasted all day and the entry fee was only $10.00....(this was incredible..
drag racing costs tons more that
this!), so I went on my first rally. My car didn't like going 24 MPH in a
25 zone, and definitely was the wrong type of car for rallying.... This
rally was a Time-Speed-Distance event and you had to average the speed given on
the instructions... Well.... here is instruction number 68 (R at STOP, change
speed to 100).... now this I could do. Turned left and lite them up! Of
course instruction number 69 was (L first OPP which was ten feet from
instruction #68... I went through an "off route" control at about 105
MPH with the tires still smok'in.... that's when I learned about traps on these
types of rallies... I met a bunch of great people, had a great time, wenthome
and bought a more suitable car and began my rally career.
After a while it was obvious that a large number of the TSD rally drivers would
like to drive faster... Then we moved the rallies off the paved on the
wonderful logging roads in our area (Washington State)... we started closing the
roads to traffic and what we call PRORally began in the US. Eventually my
rally, the Olympus became the premier rally in N.A. and was three rounds of the
FIA WRC for three years in the 1980s. I never was a Great Rally Driver,
but a competitive one. The best part about racing on a rally is the
feeling when it's over... complete peace.. all your concerns, worries, and
problems seem to disappear. Cleanses the soul maybe.. There's a story for
you.
John Nagel
Chairman - North American Rally Association
Austin Healey
My
first car was an Austin-Healey. What do you do with British sports cars but
rally them? We got lost. I thought it was dumb. Fast -forward a few years; a
college pal persuades me it would be fun to go on a rally, driving my Volvo
wagon. This time, we got a trophy out of the deal. In fact, we got trophies in
the next 3 or 4 events. Emboldened by our new-found prowess, we enter an event
in New Jersey called "Roaring Borealis". Brisk speeds, dirt
roads, all night long. We get hooked on dirt. We start going to all the NEPro/NEPRS
events and work STPR in 1979. The big time. The next year we are competitors at
STPR. I don't see any end in sight...
Phil Barnes
Cortland, NY
peb3@cornell.edu
Drive in the Country
I was introduced to rallying back in 1987.
Some friends were out for a nice drive in the country. When they came
across, they couldn't believe it, a
white Lancia Delta out on a recce! With none other than Miki Biasion at
the
wheel! They were out for the Olympus WRC. Needless to say we went
down to Tacoma and watched the tarmac stages on the FREEWAYS and CITY STREETS in
Tacoma. At the time we didn't know that they were running out into the woods.
We went in 1988 also. After we heard that the Olympus was not running in
1989.
We thought that there was no more rallying until meeting Jeff Feet in 1994.
Some friends and I started volunteering for corner marshals. We had
several
scares with "runaway cars!".
Then in 1997 I was approached by an old co-worker who was doing performance work
at a dealership. The manager told me that if I built a car they would
sponsor me! Could you believe that, I had never even raced a rally car
before. And they wanted to sponsor me! I ran all of the rallies up
here
after the Doo Wops. Because the car wasn't finished at the time of the Doo
Wops. I managed a 5th overall in class 3 and, I think, 12th overall in U2
here in the NW.
I am taking this year off to get me a service vehicle and trailer. I am
also looking to improve the performance of my Celica. Which includes
closer
ratio transmission and revised coil-overs.
Over all it has been a blast! I can't wait to compete next year and
eventually compete in the National Series! I must thank all the people
that have been there to help me! You know who you are!
Sincerely ready to rally again,
Brad Bliven
bmd rally group
Started with a Rally called Autumntyre!
In the Fall of 1972, while attending graduate
school in upstate New York, I heard an announcement on the school radio station,
WRPI, about a road rally that they were sponsoring. I think it was called
the Autumntrye and was a time-speed-distance event with some gimmicks like a
maze. One of my roommates drove his AMC Javelin AMX and I navigated with a
slide rule. I think there were over one hundred cars and we finished with
a third place trophy. I was 22 years old and could not believe that I had
been missing out on this game. I had been driving for about 6 years, beginning
with a '61 Chevy Impala, then after High School a Datsun 1600 followed by an
1800.
In the spring of 1973, there must have been two rallies - the radio station
sponsored Springleaf and another organized by the Rensselaer Sports Car
Association. I had never realized that these types of events were
happening. I must have had my head in the books or somewhere. That
must have been when I started to make up for lost time. That summer, we
found some local clubs, such as Empire Motors Sports Club out of the Albany area
and the Berkshire Motor Sports Club out of Pittsfield, Mass. We tried some
autocross and time trials on the track at Limerock Connecticut. With trophies on
4 out of 5 events, rally became my motor sport of choice. We began to run
further a-field on some of the events in the All-Night Rally Series.
While going to school on a teaching fellowship and moonlighting as a computer
programmer, I was about to buy my bosses Datsun 2000 but instead managed to find
myself in a brand new 240Z. I was rallying with other people from school
or work that wanted to see what I did; this included my future wife,
Linda, with whom on our first event, we came in first overall
and got our names in the headlines of a newspaper article about the rally. In
1974 we were introduced to the New England Region/Sports Car Club of America.
That fall, we used Linda's Chevy Nova on a Double National weekend and came home
with some hardware (in non-championship class).
It has been about 500 rallies since then - driving or navigating or organizing -
with many different partners in all classes and positions, any sex or age, not
necessarily human or even visible if that matters. (At one time, someone
wanted the concession for "I rallied with Val" t-shirts.) Here in the
northeast there is at least one rally every weekend. I have also rallied
in or through most of the states and provinces. There has been a few wins, a few
trophies, a few championships, a few contingency prizes, a few war stories, a
few scratches, a few rollovers, but only one incident with a gun pointed at the
car. I have no words of wisdom for safe and successful rallying, just show up at
the headquarters before registration closes.
After my daughter was born I dropped out completely for 5 years, but now at age
8 she is my favorite rally partner.
Val
License Plate - V.Rally
Covered Bridge Rally Team
