The Fourteenth Annual Greenwich Concours d’Elegance was held on June 6-7 at Roger Sherman Baldwin Park in Greenwich, CT. Founders and co-chairs Bruce and Genia Wennerstrom hosted an impressive variety of marques, featuring rare, classic, unusual, exotic, and one-off production and race cars.
It is a pleasure to share this delectable mix of devastating machinery with you. So as to not overwhelm you, gentle reader, we will show the cars in separate installments by the car’s nation of origin. Enjoy!
If there are two cars that define the spirit of the sports car racing in the Sixties more than any others, they must be the Austin Healey Sprite and the Triumph Spitfire. It might even be safe to say that more racers got their starts in these fun and affordable cars than all of the others combined.
Friend of The Garage, Paul Chenard, was recently commissioned to create this wonderful piece by Mike Gee from British Columbia. That’s Mike leading the way in his Spitfire at Western Speedway on Vancouver Island in 1964. Chasing him, with the inside line, is Dan Sherwood in his brand new Mk II Sprite.
Absolutely the essence of North American racing in the early Sixties!
If you’ve got a favorite photo of your car in action or you’d like to pick up one of Paul’s existing works be sure to visit Automobiliart.com
Like so many other racing addicts, the fever was started with a Bugeye Sprite. In my case though, it wasn’t my own car but my father’s first race car a full 2 years before I was born. The seed was planted though and that propelled Bud on to race with some success over the next few years.
The car is obviously an Austin Healey Sprite, which us North Americans call a Bugeye, while the Brits feel it is more of a Frogeye. It looks like the shot was taken on the pre grid at Mosport, prior to the Formula 1 garages being built. I believe the year was 1965. A bit of success with this car led to the Mark II Sprite that Bud won the first ever Ontario Sports Car racing championship in 1967.
Unfortunately this photo isn’t in the best of shape, but I believe it is the only one of this car.
The Austin Healey Sprite and MG Midget twins have long been known as Spridgets. From it’s beginning as the Bugeye (frogeye in the UK) in 1958 all the way until the rubber bumper cars of the Eighties, the Spridget has been a favourite of Brit car fans and road racers all over the world. Here in The Garage, Grandpa Bud began his racing career in a Bugeye. He was actually the first ever Ontario Sports Car Racing Champion, winning the Alitalia Trophy driving none other than a Mk II Sprite, way back in 1967. I even made an aborted attempt to restore a 72 Spridget in the late Eighties. I gave up, vowing one day to buy an H-Production Sprite some day. I still don’t have one. Continue reading →
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