Went to watch a practice day at my local track

I started by crewing for somebody who was just getting started in SCCA racing. Met him at a BMW Club Ice Raing event (really an autocross on a frozen lake, and also the first "competitive" driving event I did) and he was one of the fastest drivers out there - in a Chevette on bald snow tires. He showed up at the next event in a caged MR2 on race tires - back in the days when a Showroom Stock race car was really showroom stock-ish, and could be registered for the street. I felt bad for him just doing pirouettes on course (mid-engine+R comps are not the hot set-up for ice), so I let him co-drive my VW Golf GT on snow tires and he beat me by multiple seconds. We got to chatting, and I ended up crewing for him at his first race school, and for several years to follow. Met a bunch of people, learned the "process" of racing, and learned about other clubs that did HPDEs and time trials.

Eventually I put my own car together for SCCA Improved Touring, got a competition license, and my bank account has never been the same :-)

In reply to EchoTreeSix :

Every year, at some point, I feel a strong need to huff race gas exhaust.  You are on the right track, whichever one it is.

To answer the question, at 19 or 20 or so, I took my hotrod 1967 Mustang to participate in the local autocross (and sucked, but that didn't matter).  The level of awesome (seeing Frank Stagnaro's legendary 1965 Mustang autocross car in action, among so many others) was enough to stay with me for far too long . . .

I blame the Baseball Strike of '94. I was in Cooperstown when they called the strike. A few days later, my grandfather and father took me to the grocery store and I came across these race cars on the street. I of course told them I had to see them. It was one of the race fairs they used to have in Elmira, New York, preceding the NASCAR Glen race. I was hooked. I still remember Rusty Wallace's Miller car. It just looked mean and enticing. I spiraled into motorsport from there.