So what you're saying is, we should all get SCCA licenses and do 24 Hours of LeMons or Chump Car as Team Hubski.you watch the cars and you get to the point where you think "I could do that, if I had some practice, and din't care about wrapping a $90k subaru around a tree."
Not mentioned - one reason I was at that rally in 2003 is my cousin was in it. he was in 2nd for amateur until he broke his car (a hot 323). This is his usual performance: he does really, really well until he breaks his car. Not his fault; he lacks the money to really keep the beastie in the kind of fighting weight necessary to roll against the heavyweights. But he's a hell of a driver. Both he and his dad were national autocross champions back in the '80s. My uncle used to navigate rallies professionally (primarily the IBGAR) and made enough in purses to get on Good Morning America. My cuz did one of those $200 races (you can't spend more than $200 on the car, excluding mandatory safety equipment) and said it was a spectacularly good time.
One of my good friends bought a cheapie car one spring and we fixed it up/down so he could enter stock car races. Every Saturday we went around to different small town 1/3 or 1/2 mile tracks and he raced and was trounced every night. At the end of the season he entered it in a demolition derby and that was the end of his racing career. That was an awesome summer.