[Spridgets] Spridget 60 Final Report Highlights ELVF Road America

stanbmason at aol.com stanbmason at aol.com
Thu Sep 27 16:15:00 MDT 2018





Spridgetites,


Well to say that the 60th Reunion Celebration ofSprites and Midgets was fantastic would be an understatement thanks to all ofyou we had 47 Racing Spridgets, perfect weather, great car shows, fabulous ConcoursD’Elegance, Elkhart Lake Street Course, former Spridget racing celebrities andPeter Egan.  We had North America RacingSpridgets well covered with racers from Oregon to New York and Canada toFlorida. My only regret was not having enough time for some of thepresentations and too many mosquitos in abundance.   We had the majority of racers and street carsgathered near turn 5, which I had hoped would have been more exclusive forSpridgets.  It was difficult to contactthose that were not in the area and parked in more remote sections.  I would like to thank all those that made thishappen with special recognition for donations from Erick Zanner’s JDMInvestments, Clancy Schmidt both for awards and a surprise Austin Healey CDs fromBill Emerson.   I also appreciate all thevolunteers counting ballots for car shows at Road America.
 I will try to listall the fun chronologically and apologize if I did not get all the names ofthose involved:
1.       
Thursday – This was a test and tune day and manytook advantage of the extra time on the track prior to the weekend.  Some of us migrated down to Siebken’s Bar inElkhart Lake as part of the ritual of Sports Car Heritage.
2.      
Friday – First day of practice and ending upwith the Track Welcome Party Dinner.  Wehad approximately 20 to 30 race cars that displayed their cars in front of theRoad America Center prior to dinner where voting for the best Sprite and Midgetwas determined by popular vote with awards handed out by Peter Egan.  This was also an opportunity to have the CapeOf Good Hope Pub out for some fun Austin Healey History including Toasting theHealeys for creating the car that we all enjoy today along with Queen OfEngland followed by “God Save The Queen”.  Severin Thompson Face Timed John Sprinzel so he could enjoy seeing thefestivities from Hawaii added to the fun of the evening.  John was responsible for the early success Spriteshad in racing and started Speedwell.  Itwas fun seeing the Comer family (4 in total) all arriving in a Bug Eye Spritefor the dinner and again shows family involvement in Vintage Sports Car Racingbeing much more than just racing. Severin brought out the Thicko awards to worthy racers.
3.       
Saturday – Was a busy day as promised with aStreet Car Show, Elkhart Lake Street Course reenactment, Concours and 60thDinner Banquet.  It was great seeingPeter Egan driving a beautiful MkII Sprite Works recreation of the 1962 SebringSteve McQueen generously lent by Severin Thompson.  We had up to 40 cars mostly Sprites thatparticipated in the Street Car Show with the best Sprite and Midget selected bypopular vote.  It was great seeing somany street and race Spridgets in one place. Many of these cars were world class restorations with some beautiful streamlinespecial bodied Sprites present including 3 Speedwells and 1 WSM (Wilson SprattMcManus) along with other unique Sprites like the 2 Italian Innocentis thatwere Ghia body inspired.  These specialSprites were a treat to many like myself who had only seen them in magazinesand Internet.  Many of these same carsmade it to the Concours D’Elegance along with other world class cars likeBugatti, XK Jaguars (celebrating 70 years) and other exceptional cars totalingover 100. The evening’s 60th Sprite and Midget Banquet was a soldout crowd.  We asked those in theaudience who had raced or assisted with a Sprite or Midget stand, about halfthe crowd stood amazing everyone.  Someonefrom the audience suggested that most of those that stood in the crowd probablyworked on a Spridget resulting in loud laughter.  Road and Track sports car magazine’s PeterEgan was the main event.  Peter’spresentation on primarily Sprites and his early racing was interesting andprovided much laughter from his dry wit.
4.       
Sunday – Was equally as special having 20 StreetSprites and Innocenti for the opening lap prior to the 60th SpridgetRace.  The display of 33 of the 47Spridgets entered coming up to the Start Line was overwhelming to see.  I along with several others that experiencedmechanical issues wish we could have been out there in this great display.  Peter Egan joined us again to distributecheckered flags for 1st Overall and Class 2d winner Colin Comer, 1stClass 2E Buzz Merchlewitz.  Robert Stearnwas 1st in 2PC (special designate SCCA class) and was not present atour awards.  If anyone has a phone numberor email for Robert please let me know and I will make sure he receives his 60thcheckered flag.
5.       
Overall this event exceeded my expectations andI saw many smiling faces throughout this beautiful weekend.  We had some apprehension over a combined SCCA/ Vintage Sports Car Event for this special 60th celebration, whichturned out well with very few incidents. We are thankful that Cana Comer was not injured in her incident.  We had many former SCCA racers observing and somefrom behind the wheel.  One of my specialprivileges was to introduce 1974 SCCA HP National Champ John McCue to one ofhis serious Central Division Rivals Phil Carpenter.  Both had big grins on their face from knowingeach other in the past and enjoyed seeing each other after many decades.  We had many special family Spridget RacingHeritage for the weekend with Clancy Schmidt putting together a Square Bodyjust in time and able to race with Son Scott. Don Kelly was driving his Dad Jeff’s former racer and Jeff with hisother Past Bug Eye Racer now restored as a Street Car.  John Salisbury brought his Dad’ old SCCA BugEye with his family driving this race car in many of the street events whileJohn raced his Sprite throughout the weekend.  During the weekend John Seaman from the localPBS Station videoed many highlights of our 60th Sprite Reunion includinginterviews with various drivers.  He willbe providing me with a copy of this CD when it becomes available and will havea trailer that he will post to YouTube. I will let you know through our email distribution about details when itbecomes available. 
Sprite Midget Race Series – You had a taste of what we do atVSCDA with our Sprite Midget Race Series and even though we don’t have 47Spridgets show up for our races we average around 15 for our exclusive Spridgetrace at 3 tracks (Gingerman, Grattan and Black Hawk Farms) with fun wheel towheel racing.  We maintain a VintageSports Car attitude with points awarded (2/3 durability and 1/3 for positon)with the best of 2 out of 3 race weekends. Please consider joining us in the future for the fun that we have on andoff the track.  More details areavailable by contacting Stan (StanBMason at AOL.com)


I have posted many photos of the 60th on Facebook Sites and will forward some through this distribution for some of you that may not be involved with FB.  Roger Smith also took some great shots at the beginnning of the Spridget 60 Start just before Start/Finish line on bridget that worked out well.  I will break these up and forward in the near future.


Thanks
Stan
 
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