When we got word last year that an enthusiastic, motivated young person was working to put a Sprite with race history back to the 60s back on track our ears perked up. The Sprite-Midget group certainly comes to the track with gusto, you bet, but at 56 this author is one of the youngest drivers in the group. 20 year-old Evan would single-handedly lower our average age by a couple decades. And he’s a mechanic in a British car shop? Come on down, Evan!
He came out to the 2024 Columbia River Classic in Portland, was one of the Sprite Midget Challenge Le Mans start runners, and he hung out in the paddock and got the feel for a race weekend. He embraced all of it, continuing to work away at the car, which sat outside for many years.
As 2025 rolled in we continued to hear from Evan that he was making steady progress on the car. He signed up for and passed the ISCC school in Portland, and signed up as a participate in SOVREN’s new Youthful Driver Assistance program.
As Spring Sprints crept closer we got more frequent updates from Evan…the interior of the is painted. The engine is getting closer, the head is ready, the trans is being refreshed. I can tell from the time stamps on the messages that Evan’s nights are getting later…he’s having a first race entry experience similar to mine in 2022…decades is long time for any car to sit idle. A race car sitting that long, well, it’s going to have a lot of surprises waiting.
Evan drove the car for the first time about ten days before Spring Sprints, then signed up for a track day at PIR in Portland. Things seemed to be coming together nicely.
But his first-year experience stayed the course and his late nights weren’t over: The transmission was popping out of 3rd gear, and at the track day the valves were sticking in the head.
This is where our amazing Sprite-Midget community comes into this story. A racer in Hood River offered to loan Evan a head, a renowned engine builder in Portland, who’d been assisting Evan along the way, made last-minute room in his schedule to help, and a racer in Seattle offered him a loaner transmission.
And that’s how Evan rolled into Pacific Raceways late on on Thursday May 2, 2025: Short block in the nose of the trailer, car behind it, head in his truck, and a spare transmission and engine hoist waiting for him.
We quickly set to work attaching the transmission to the engine, hoisting it into the car, installing the head, and connecting everything. At about 9:30 PM the initial torque is done on the head and we stop for the night, with a 5:00 PM to 9:00 AM no-race-engines rule.
Friday morning comes early; we need to be at the track for Evan’s novice meeting at 7:30. He attends the meeting, but misses the first novice session to warm up the block and re-torque the head, and finish buttoning up and testing the car. A quick drive around the paddock instills some confidence in the install and in the freshly rebuilt transmission.
At 10:00 Evan climbs into the car and rolls out to grid for the very first time for the 10:15 novice session. The SMC paddock claps and cheers him out, then those of us not in cars proceed to the bleachers to watch.
The rest is pretty simple: Evan has a great first weekend of racing. The car he built performs exceptionally and he races it in true vintage spirit: Safely, having fun, and going fast. Indeed, he drove far beyond his age and experience and we all look forward to years of racing with him!
Evan’s story can you be yours, too. We are here to help you start your Spridget racing career and make your wheel-to-wheel racing dream come true. You can contact us here.
