August 20, 2026
for immediate release
Mission Raceway Park, in Mission, British Columbia, is a 1.2 mile, nine turn, hairpin-filled track that seems designed for momentum race cars like Sprites and Midgets. Testing driver skill, endurance, tires, and brakes like no other track in the Northwest, it’s the venue of the British Columbia Historic Motor Races, which rolls out the red carpet for the Sprite-Midget Challenge.
Nine Sprites and Midgets convened at the track August 8-9, six from the U.S. and three from Canada. For the first time this year, every entered Spridget lined up for the start the SMC race, our first Le Mans-style start of the year.
The starting order, set by numbers drawn from a hat, is Maggio (35), Duncan (154), Okell (7), Hansen (36), Slinker (50), Campbell (12), Tupholme (81), Newby (1), and Newman (4).
At the drop of the starter flag the runners sprint across the track, grab a piece of tape from the roll bar, the cars start, and are off. Tupholme, in his 1970 blue Midget gets out first, followed hotly by Campbell, in a ’59 Sprite, and Duncan, in a ’62 Midget.
With Tupholme just ahead, Campbell and Duncan go into turn 1 side by side, with Campbell pulling a slight lead at the exit when his transmission comes out of 2nd gear. With Campbell unexpectedly slowing, Duncan’s left front headlight bucket envelops Campbell’s right rear brake lens in a light impact that Campbell doesn’t notice, but loosens Duncan’s fiberglass fender.
Unaware, Campbell gives chase to Tupholme until his motor inexplicably bogs down in the chicane. Campbell exits the track before completing a lap, followed by Duncan with a loose fender, leaving Tupholme out front with Okell, who got a slow start, and Newby giving fierce chase.
Mid-race Okell strings together three consecutive laps in the 1:18s to catch and pass Newby and Tupholme, who hung close but couldn’t match the speed of Okell’s #7 Midget, newly upgraded with now-SCCA legal HS4 SU carbs.
Meanwhile, Newman and Hansen were putting on a lap-after-lap show in the mid-pack. Newman laid out several personal-best times, but in the end it was Hansen’s upgraded braking that made the difference.
Okell took the win, followed by Tupholme. Newby, despite kissing the always ominous wall at the exit of turn 2, took the final podium position.
Slinker and Maggio, the sole 1098 competitor, rounded out the finishers.
The Sprite-Midget Challenge now heads to SOVREN’s Columbia River Classic at Portland International Raceway September 5-6 for its second Le Mans-style start and final event of the year.
Sprite-Midget Challenge standings after four of five events.
Note: The best four results are counted for each driver; if a driver races all five events, one is dropped.
