I’m not planning to make a habit of posting about car shows, but this one had a special event.
We’ve taken all three Bugeyes, including the race car, to the Western Washington All British Field Meet each of the last three years. It means an extra round trip on Saturday evening after the show to get all three home, but I can’t imagine leaving one of the street cars home, and the race car is fun to show and also helps spread the word about SOVREN, Pacific Raceways, and vintage racing in general.
“Kids” (of all ages) often like to try sitting in the race car, are amused by the removable steering wheel, and make all sorts of fun race car sounds when prompted. I even had some baseball-style trading cards made up to hand out.
We’ve also brought in new volunteer race officials, crew, and (hopefully) some future racers.
I get asked all sorts of questions about the race car…the most common is “Do you actually race this?”
How old is it? How fast does it go? Where is the steering wheel? What’s that weird disc on the passenger side?
“What is the history of the car?” is also common, so I wasn’t surprised when an early visitor to the show on July 12, 2024 show asked, “Did you do the restoration on this car; do you know its history?”
“Well, I had it restored, but I didn’t do the work myself. And yes, I do know most of the history of the car. It was finished as a race car by a guy named Jason Len in California in the early 70s. He…”
I don’t get to finish the next sentence because he says, “I’m Jason Len.”
Full disclosure: I knew Jason was still around and living in California, but had NO idea he was going to be at the show, nor did he know his former race car, which he hadn’t seen since 1979, would be there.
Thus begins a lot of laughter (he’s there with family), story-telling, and (after some coaxing), him climbing over the cage to sit in the car for the first time in 45 years.
I like cars, I like driving, I like racing, and I (usually) like working on the cars. But as fun as all that is, *this* is the sort of thing that I love most about the car community, and vintage racing. These cars each have a story and each story is interesting, and those stories and adding to them bring people together (and back together) in a wonderful, fun way.
Thank you Jason, for completing this race car that has gone on to provide so much fun, laughter, bloody knuckles, new combinations of swear words, and joy to Sam Hamilton, me, and a host of others that helped and played with us along the way.