DONOVAN’S SPRITE BEATS THEM ALL

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33676, 28 October 1974, Page 3

DONOVAN’S SPRITE BEATS THEM ALL

Tom Donovan, of Wellington, has been trying to win a race for some time and his car has always let him down. But yesterday at the Timaru Raceway the car held together and Donovan won the 20-lap feature event for sports cars.

Donovan’s car looks like a wry joke. In a field of no-compromise Can-Am-style cars—fat tyres, spoilers, a few sheets of curved aluminium which bear little resemblance to conventional sports-cars — Donovan’s Austin Healey Sprite is like a fairy in a witches’ coven.

On the track, though, nothing could touch it. Donovan drove very precisely, in contrast to some of the hairy drivers in home-made specials which

pass for sports-cars, and lapped most of the 15 cars in the race.

The Sprite body is only a facade, however, because underneath the glass fibre shell sits a 1430 c.c. twin-cam Ford with a turbo-charger (giving it a rating of 1995 c.c. in the two-litre class) and racingcar suspension, which explains why the Sprite beat the Lotuses.

Donovan has brought the car south for three previous meetings, and each time the motor has failed in practice. He has had a similar lack of success in the North Island.

Yesterday it did not miss a beat and he is confident that he can do well in this year’s sports-car championship.