Diane Houseal & Ed Brennan, 1990 Moosehead Rally New Brunsiwick Canada

I am sad to report the passing of Diane Houseal on Tuesday August 26, 2025. Diane was a Co-Driver, worker, and organizer from 1978 - 2023. I first met Diane in 1977 when she with then husband Ken Houseal, were the organizers of the "Night Stalker Rally" of the 1970's NEPRO (insanely fast, I wish it was a stage so we could slow down for the corners) Performance TSD events. This was the series started by Harry Handley in 1976 as entry level performance events. One of the events was even called the "NQP" (Not quite PRO). If you read the list of competitors and organizers from those early years it is like a who's who of Rally Racing in the early years.

After a few years of NEPRO, most of us started to compete in all stage events. Diane co-driving for husband Ken competed in many events in the U.S. and Canada from 1979 until 1986. In 1986 Diane won the Production GT class North American Co-Driver Championship. From 1987 until 1995 Diane continued to co-drive most notably for being Carl Merrill's first co-driver in 1989. Some of the other drivers besides me were, Noel Lawler, Shannon Millen and Pat Ayer.

In the 1990's we both stopped competing and concentrated on working and organizing events, proudly being in the group of unnamed friends of John Buffum in the old Maine Forest Rally starting in 1991. We also worked with the Blue Mountain Region SCCA on the "RallyRight" rally school from 1989 until 2000. During this time period we also worked with Greg Healey at the Sand Hills Rally, in South Carolina. And again with Greg when he started the Black River Stages, in New York. And of course STPR, in Pennsylvania where we got our first taste of "Stage Rally' back in 1978.

Looking back to those times stir memories of leading a caravan of workers, starting at 6:00 AM, in near blizzard conditions to the first stage at the 1991 Maine Forest Rally. Another noteable memory, is hearing tornado warnings while waiting for competitors in South Carolina at an early Sandhills event. Diane always managed to recruit enough workers in even the most difficult of rally conditions. One time in a conversation with Kerry Voll, Diane said "I don't know why, but they show up when I call", Kerry replied "Because they respect you and Ed". We gained their respect by always being in the lead car, and working in any weather condition. She would never ask anyone to do anything she wouldn't be out there doing.

With the birth of the commercial internet and the "World Wide Web" in the mid 1990's, Diane and I developed the Rally Racing News Website. We acted as co-publishers and Diane was the editor. During that time we also hosted event websites, including the Maine Forest Rally, RallyRight, Black River Stages, and Rally New York. After almost 30 years "Rally Racing News" is still going strong providing news, and archived results for North American events.

Diane had a lung transplant in 2014, and we had to scale back our involvement with working, but we still managed to be day workers at some events working a radio position along the stage. That new lung was still going strong until her death which was the result of kidney failure. Diane passed peacefully with me holding her hand at noon on Tuesday, at the PennMed Medical Center, Plainsboro, NJ. There will never be another Diane.