[Spridgets] Spridget 60 Final Report Highlights ELVF Road America

[Erick Zanner]

This is great, thank you!
Well done Stan!!

On Thu, Sep 27, 2018 at 6:15 PM <stanbmason at aol.com> wrote:

>
> Spridgetites,
>
> Well to say that the 60th Reunion Celebration of Sprites and Midgets was
> fantastic would be an understatement thanks to all of you we had 47 Racing
> Spridgets, perfect weather, great car shows, fabulous Concours D’Elegance,
> Elkhart Lake Street Course, former Spridget racing celebrities and Peter
> Egan.  We had North America Racing Spridgets well covered with racers from
> Oregon to New York and Canada to Florida. My only regret was not having
> enough time for some of the presentations and too many mosquitos in
> abundance.   We had the majority of racers and street cars gathered near
> turn 5, which I had hoped would have been more exclusive for Spridgets.  It
> was difficult to contact those that were not in the area and parked in more
> remote sections.  I would like to thank all those that made this happen
> with special recognition for donations from Erick Zanner’s JDM Investments,
> Clancy Schmidt both for awards and a surprise Austin Healey CDs from Bill
> Emerson.   I also appreciate all the volunteers counting ballots for car
> shows at Road America.
>  I will try to list all the fun chronologically and apologize if I did not
> get all the names of those involved:
> 1.
> Thursday – This was a test and tune day and many took advantage of the
> extra time on the track prior to the weekend.  Some of us migrated down to
> Siebken’s Bar in Elkhart Lake as part of the ritual of Sports Car Heritage.
> 2.
> Friday – First day of practice and ending up with the Track Welcome Party
> Dinner.  We had approximately 20 to 30 race cars that displayed their cars
> in front of the Road America Center prior to dinner where voting for the
> best Sprite and Midget was determined by popular vote with awards handed
> out by Peter Egan.  This was also an opportunity to have the Cape Of Good
> Hope Pub out for some fun Austin Healey History including Toasting the
> Healeys for creating the car that we all enjoy today along with Queen Of
> England followed by “God Save The Queen”.   Severin Thompson Face Timed
> John Sprinzel so he could enjoy seeing the festivities from Hawaii added to
> the fun of the evening.  John was responsible for the early success Sprites
> had in racing and started Speedwell.  It was fun seeing the Comer family (4
> in total) all arriving in a Bug Eye Sprite for the dinner and again shows
> family involvement in Vintage Sports Car Racing being much more than just
> racing.  Severin brought out the Thicko awards to worthy racers.
> 3.
> Saturday – Was a busy day as promised with a Street Car Show, Elkhart Lake
> Street Course reenactment, Concours and 60th Dinner Banquet.  It was
> great seeing Peter Egan driving a beautiful MkII Sprite Works recreation of
> the 1962 Sebring Steve McQueen generously lent by Severin Thompson.  We had
> up to 40 cars mostly Sprites that participated in the Street Car Show with
> the best Sprite and Midget selected by popular vote.  It was great seeing
> so many street and race Spridgets in one place.  Many of these cars were
> world class restorations with some beautiful streamline special bodied
> Sprites present including 3 Speedwells and 1 WSM (Wilson Spratt McManus)
> along with other unique Sprites like the 2 Italian Innocentis that were
> Ghia body inspired.  These special Sprites were a treat to many like myself
> who had only seen them in magazines and Internet.  Many of these same cars
> made it to the Concours D’Elegance along with other world class cars like
> Bugatti, XK Jaguars (celebrating 70 years) and other exceptional cars
> totaling over 100. The evening’s 60th Sprite and Midget Banquet was a
> sold out crowd.  We asked those in the audience who had raced or assisted
> with a Sprite or Midget stand, about half the crowd stood amazing
> everyone.  Someone from the audience suggested that most of those that
> stood in the crowd probably worked on a Spridget resulting in loud
> laughter.  Road and Track sports car magazine’s Peter Egan was the main
> event.  Peter’s presentation on primarily Sprites and his early racing was
> interesting and provided much laughter from his dry wit.
> 4.
> Sunday – Was equally as special having 20 Street Sprites and Innocenti for
> the opening lap prior to the 60th Spridget Race.  The display of 33 of
> the 47 Spridgets entered coming up to the Start Line was overwhelming to
> see.  I along with several others that experienced mechanical issues wish
> we could have been out there in this great display.  Peter Egan joined us
> again to distribute checkered flags for 1st Overall and Class 2d winner
> Colin Comer, 1st Class 2E Buzz Merchlewitz.  Robert Stearn was 1st in 2PC
> (special designate SCCA class) and was not present at our awards.  If
> anyone has a phone number or email for Robert please let me know and I will
> make sure he receives his 60th checkered flag.
> 5.
> Overall this event exceeded my expectations and I 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, which turned 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 some from behind the wheel.  One of my
> special privileges was to introduce 1974 SCCA HP National Champ John McCue
> to one of his serious Central Division Rivals Phil Carpenter.  Both had big
> grins on their face from knowing each other in the past and enjoyed seeing
> each other after many decades.  We had many special family Spridget Racing
> Heritage for the weekend with Clancy Schmidt putting together a Square Body
> just in time and able to race with Son Scott.  Don Kelly was driving his
> Dad Jeff’s former racer and Jeff with his other Past Bug Eye Racer now
> restored as a Street Car.  John Salisbury brought his Dad’ old SCCA Bug Eye
> with his family driving this race car in many of the street events while
> John raced his Sprite throughout the weekend.  During the weekend John
> Seaman from the local PBS Station videoed many highlights of our 60th
> Sprite Reunion including interviews with various drivers.  He will be
> providing me with a copy of this CD when it becomes available and will have
> a trailer that he will post to YouTube.  I will let you know through our
> email distribution about details when it becomes available.
> Sprite Midget Race Series – You had a taste of what we do at VSCDA with
> our Sprite Midget Race Series and even though we don’t have 47 Spridgets
> show up for our races we average around 15 for our exclusive Spridget race
> at 3 tracks (Gingerman, Grattan and Black Hawk Farms) with fun wheel to
> wheel racing.  We maintain a Vintage Sports 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 and off the track.  More details are available 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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