April 23, 2026 for immediate release
That’s right! One week from today, on April 30, we load-in for the first SOVREN event of the season, the Spring Sprints, which hosts the first Sprite-Midget Challenge race of 2026.
This is the first time the SMC has held a race at Spring Sprints, where the cars (and their drivers) are typically at peak freshness and functionality. The winter driving rust is scoured off during a Friday Test & Tune day, and off-season mods are dialed in.
The event features two jam-packed days of racing, kicking right off with qualifying Saturday morning, followed by three races on Saturday and three more on Sunday. The Sprite-Midget Challenge race will be the last session on Saturday, scheduled to start at 5:15 PM.
We’ll welcome new SMC drivers Coley Tipton and Mark Hansen. Soon-to-be SMC driver Al Lorenz will run the weekend in a Spec Miata as he waits for his car to be finished, and Ehab Sahawneh will participate in the Novice Orientation in his 63 Jaguar E-Type, while he works on the momentous project converting a street Sprite into a race car.
SMC veterans Newby, Newman, Lyford, Quackenbush, Campbell, Eldridge, Shinn, Smith, Herb, Duncan, Heacock, and Greenman will join Tipton and Hansen to make a FOURTEEN car Spridget grid, our largest to date.
It’s going to be a great, fun, epic weekend at Pacific Raceways. If you’re in the area, come down and be part of the fun!
PS- if you think fourteen is a nice grid, hold onto your seat: For Battle of the Brits II in July, we expect to have Lorenz in his car, plus another Newby (son), another Shinn (son), the return of Robins and Tupholme after a year off, a mystery driver in a soon-to-be finished car…making 20, with more on the way!