What I lack in driving talent I make up for with abundant areas for substantial improvement. ~ Loren
April 7, 2026
Amid all the energy going into the Arnold car this year, SOVREN’s Spring Sprints have snuck right up! Yep, we’ll be back on track May 1-3 at Pacific Raceways…just 24 days from now! Stay tuned for the race schedule and updated live-streaming info…I think I have enough YouTube followers to live stream there now!
November 1, 2024: Hey folks, please hop on over to this page about Arnold’s Bugeye racer that we are working to restore. Chip in if you can!
Welcome to the web site for this 1959 Austin Healey Sprite race car, and its current driver, Loren.
About:
(updated December 20, 2025 after some neat new info arrived via a comment on this YouTube race video)
This 1959 Austin Healey Mark 1 “Bugeye” Sprite was purchased used in 1969 by Marc Schulman. It had no motor or trans and an aftermarket “funky” fiberglass bonnet. Marc installed a motor and trans from a totaled Morris Minor and it was his daily driver for several years, including many trips from San Luis Opisbo to Newport Beach on 101 and 405. He took it off the road in 1971 to convert it into a race car. In 1974 he sold it to Jason Len, who completed the conversion in 1976. Jason sent me this photo, which was taken right before he took it for a first test drive.
In 1979 Jason sold it to my future father-in-law, Sam Hamilton. Sam campaigned the car primarily in the upper Midwest from 1980 to 1985, at which point it was parked (after hitting a wall at Mid Ohio) in his shop in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Sam Hamilton racing to 2nd place at Lime Rock in 1981.
In 2017, after years of attending the Pacific Northwest Historics as a spectator and participant in the fun lunchtime “parade laps”, and many races in the go karts at the Pacific GP track adjacent to Pacific Raceways, I asked Sam about getting his old race car race-ready again.
February 6, 2018: Sam’s long-time buddy and my Sprite mentor John Alexander unburies the car from its place of long rest in Sam’s shop in Ann Arbor.
That started a long, multi-year odyssey that was much harder, more painful, and more expensive than I ever imagined. But on Thursday, June 28, 2022, I drove the car onto the track for its first race in 37 years. At some point I’ll write a full-form version of the saga.
We currently race with SOVREN, the Society of Vintage Racing Enthusiasts, mostly in the Pacific Northwest, and at least one a year, somewhere a bit further away. 2023 saw the car at SCCA’s Thunderhill track in Willows, CA. In 2024 we raced in Mission, British Columbia, and at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. In 2025 we traveled to Monterey, California and raced at the famed Laguna-Seca track with CSRG and the Sprite-Midget Challenge.
Tentative 2026 Race Schedule
May 1-3: SOVREN Spring Sprints, Kent, WA
June 6-7: Spokane Festival of Speed, Spokane, WA
July 3-5: SOVREN Northwest Historics, Kent, WA
August 8-9: British Columbia Historics, Mission, BC
September 5-6: SOVREN Columbia River Classic, Portland, OR
September 19-20: SOVREN Fall Finale, Kent, WA
2025 Race Schedule (we didn’t make BC Historics due to mechanical issues)
May 2-4: SOVREN Spring Sprints, Kent, WA
June 6-8: Spokane Festival of Speed, Spokane, WA
June 20-22: Laps for Laguna and Sprite-Midget Challenge event with CSRG
July 4-6: SOVREN Northwest Historics, Kent, WA
August 9-10: British Columbia Historics, Mission, BC
September 6-7: SOVREN Columbia River Classic, Portland, OR
September 27-28: SOVREN Fall Finale, Kent, WA
2024 Race Schedule:
April 26-28: Spring Sprints, Pacific Raceways, Kent, WA
June 28-30: Pacific Northwest Historics, Pacific Raceways, Kent, WA
August 10-11: British Columbia Historic Motor Races, Mission, BC
August 31-Sept 1: Columbia River Classic, PIR, Portland, OR
Sept 13-15: VSCDA Historics, Road America, Elkhart Lake, WI (WE WENT!)
September 28-29: Fall Finale, Pacific Raceways, Kent, WA
I enjoy meeting people in the paddock and most of our races include paddock access in the spectator entry fee. Come say ‘hello’, sit in the car (ask first, please), and get a free trading card.
Video:
When possible, we live-stream races from an in-car camera, currently on Twitch, here:
A great back-and-forth duel in 2024 (video has wrong year) with Jake Angel in his C1 Corvette (after a problematic start):
Some fun racing from Group 1, Race 2 of SOVREN Spring Sprints 2024:
Here is the start of the fun “Faux Le Mans” start of the 2023 Thunderhill one-hour enduro race:
And here is some fun racing in the rain from the 2023 SOVREN Fall Finale:
Edited in-car race videos are posted on this YouTube channel. I’ll start live-streaming direct to YouTube as soon as I get the required 50 followers.
We support and race with the West Coast Sprite-Midget Challenge series. More info here.
Recent Musings…
- One Month
April 1 is here. As usual, the first few months of the year have FLOWN by, the days are warmer, drier, and longer, the daffodils have come and gone, and fresh, green leaves are appearing on the trees and shrubs. One month from today we’ll be back on track. In the paddock laughing and having… Read more: One Month - 2025 Fall Finale Summary
What a way to end the season. Wow. I kind of don’t want to write about it. How to put into word the fun of seven track sessions in two days, plus an hour on Sunday of ride-along hot laps? Let’s maybe start with the negative. I was planning to run ride-alongs on Saturday, too,… Read more: 2025 Fall Finale Summary - 2025 Fall Finale Preview
Sept 22 Update: The schedule has changed a bit. New version below. The season that started out, literally, with a bang, was very front-loaded with three weekends of racing in five weeks, including long tows to and from the bucket-list and famed Laguna Seca track, has come down to its final weekend. As of today,… Read more: 2025 Fall Finale Preview - 2025 Columbia River Classic Summary
Well. In retrospect, the 2025 CRC was a somewhat mitigated microcosm of the entire 2025 season. Thankfully, I came home with an intact car and engine this time. The 180 mile drive to the track is pleasant and I arrive in the paddock at 12:45 and find a spot in the Spridget Compound, at the… Read more: 2025 Columbia River Classic Summary - 2025 Columbia River Classic PreviewIt seems like it’s been a year since I last raced. The PNW Historics was seven weeks ago and I missed the mid-August race in Mission due to not having a race engine for the car. Though I was rue to miss Mission, I took the open weekend to travel to Michigan to help my… Read more: 2025 Columbia River Classic Preview