His championship days may be long gone, but Nelson is still out there competing at a high level, and with a few items still to tick off his ‘Bucket List’.
We caught up with the proud South Australian...
RSM: What and who brought you into the sport?
Mark Nelson: In 1977 I saw a commercial on SA TV for this thing called rallying. It was an ad for the Endrust Forest Rally and from the brief clip of cars sliding sideways on dirt, I thought ‘this looks interesting’.
For some reason I couldn’t make it, and it was forgotten about for a year. In 1978, a new ad appeared and I said to myself that I must go up and see this live.
The Mt Crawford forest wasn’t far away, so I went up and found the main spectator area and heard and saw the Datsun Stanza and the outgoing 160J.
The noise of those carbies and the action and smell is what got me hooked, and by early 1979, I had converted my road car into a rally car. I have never looked back since.
SUBSCRIBE BELOW TO READ THE FULL STORY
