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.
Love it! When I first met my wife she drove a white bug-eye and it ran like a munchkin. One day she let me drive while we were headed through the hills to her parent’s home in Portola Valley when all of a sudden when I took a hard left hander the car died. She laughed and said, “It’s no big deal. Whenever you make too sharp of a turn to the left the distributor falls out. Al we have to do is stick it back in.” Sure as heck, when we opened the hood there lay the distributor with a broken hold down. I built her a 65 Mustang and sold the Bug Eye. Sure have regretted that for a lot of years.
Hi, I’m the guy in the picture!! Just a little bit older and not quite so lean.
The Sprite in the picture was actually the second Sprite I owned. I don’t even remember what year it was. The one in the photo was burgundy, but that was so long ago I suspect the word burgundy hadn’t even been invented (except when when referring to wine) so I suppose the colour was maroon. The very first Sprite I owned was a 1960 powder blue one. I bought it new from a dealership that I seem to recall was close to the corner of Decarie Blvd. and Sherbrooke Street in Montreal. It cost all of $1,999.00. I was 23 and married to Gary’s Mum , Gloria.
We both had jobs and only got two weeks vacation a year, so we decided to take a trip in the powder blue sprite. The car didn’t have a name. I never named any of my cars, I just put numbers on some of them, usually the same number -31. Anyway all that aside, we took that little puddle jumper from Montreal down into the States. We visited the Grand Canyon, we went to DisneyLand and even got as far south as San Diego. We drove back up the West Coast from Los Angeles to San Francisco up Mount Tamalpais, where we had to drive up two miles, then go down one mile in second gear to cool the engine enough to turn around and go up two miles again. After a number of these procedures, we made it to the top. We continued up the West Coast to Vancouver, over Rogers Pass and the Rocky Mountains, across the prairies, visited RCAF station Portage la Prairie so we could see where I had been posted for 2 1/2 years. Carried on through the northern States up through Sault Ste Marie and back to Montreal. 10,000 miles, 4 Yule Brenner tires and I’ve had a bad back ever since. The other odd thing that I remember was having to take the car into a dealership in Albuquerque, New Mexico to get the SU carburetors adjusted. The poor little engine was not getting enough oxygen at the higher altitudes. I have no idea why wrote this. I am sure no ones cares, It’s just a little bit of personal nostalgia. More for Gary to read than anything else. If you really want to be bored I can tell you about my 4200 KM trip on a 125CC Vespa from Milan to London, England and back when I was sent Monza in 1968. Or, next time, if Gary wants me to, I’ll tell you what it was like driving that maroon Sprite on a race track back in the olden days. Wild times!!
I for one loved the write up ahd hope for more. Especialy enjoyed the part about Mnt Tamalpais since I have driven it a thousand times on the way to Stinson Beach in all kinds of cars. Interesting fact about that road, almost anyone that grew up near it ended up spending many good hours at Sears Point as a result.
I took one look at the picture, before reading anything, and said that is Bud Tucker at Mosport. I do not remember that car though. I do remember the next one though and Bud’s dices with Terry Fitzgerald, who still shows up at Mosport.
Good picture, great comments! Gary G, if you want to send me that photo over I can try and to a little Photoshop repair on it ….
I’m looking for pictures of my bugeye racing in 1967. It is #311. I see my name mentioned above (HI Leighton) and hope someone has snapped a couple of shots they can share. For some reason I can’t open the picture of Bud’s car (Hi Bud)
Saw a beautiful little powder blue frogeye at the Westwood 50 races this weekend in the paddock. The owner seems to be just finishing up a restoration, as it had no trim or windshield on it! Always amazes me how small they are. Maybe when the Mini is finished I’ll try and find a frogeye.