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The little Austin Healy “Bugeye” Sprite that could
By Gary Becker
Sports Car Illustrated
In the annals of the adventures of the open road, a simple trip from Treasure Island, Florida to Sebring International Raceway may not measure up to a run down the Pan-American Highway. There are no jungles between Treasure Island and Sebring nor are there any mountains, bandits or meandering bands of revolutionaries along the one hundred or so miles of well maintained Florida highway.
Instead, West Central Florida is full of a seemingly endless number of orange groves, roadside fruit stands and the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. Not exactly the surroundings needed for a Hemingway novel. But sometimes it is not the geography or the inhabitants that make a road trip an adventure, rather the vehicle used can make even the most mundane drive a story to tell and re-tell.
This is one of those stories, a tale about a retired Vietnam Veteran from Treasure Island, Florida and his even more veteran 1960 Austin Healy “Bugeye” Sprite. I say veteran “Bugeye” Sprite because the little white “Bugeye” that resides in Butch Ellsworth’s garage has not been restored. Butch’s “Bugeye” is still mostly equipped with all the parts that were screwed or bolted on so many years ago in an English factory and somehow have managed to survive pretty much intact in Butch’s garage. No rotisserie restoration here, just some fresh paint and new upholstery.
This is Butch’s second “Bugeye”. His first “Bugeye” was his first car and provided Butch with the proper transportation needed to cruise up and down the beach roads of Florida’s Gulf Coast. That all ended when greeting and salutations arrived from Uncle Sam and Butch went off to fly at tree top level over the jungles of Vietnam in a Huey.
After returning from Vietnam, Butch got a job, got married and even was elected as a City Commissioner in the small Gulf beach community of Treasure Island. Even after all this, the memories of the sunny days spent cruising up and down Gulf Boulevard in his “Bugeye” never dimmed.
Several years ago Butch decided it was time to relive those memories and began shopping for a “Bugeye”. He finally found one through eBay in Alabama. After a few phone calls and a run to Dixie and back, Butch had his ride to memory lane, a white, mostly original, 1960 “Bugeye” Sprite.
In Florida anyone who drives a “Bugeye” or any other type of sports car for that matter, migrates to Sebring International Raceway every March for the annual spring rites referred to as the 12 Hours or more simply just “Sebring”. Butch migrated every year to Sebring before going off to war and has in recent years rejoined that migration though now with reserved trackside parking, proper scaffolding and a warm bed to sleep in.
Last year when I returned home from covering the Bobby Rahal Legends of Motorsports event at Sebring, I told Butch that during the lunch break on race day’s spectators and fans were able, for a small charge, take their cars onto the race track and make several laps under controlled conditions. I could by the look on Butch’s face that the words “Sebring, track touring and “Bugeye” were bouncing around in his head.
As the date for this year’s Bobby Rahal Legends of Motorsports event neared I reminded Butch that like last year, there would be a track touring session during lunch breaks. Butch immediately began talking about getting a trailer and towing his “Bugeye” to Sebring and run a couple of laps during one of the touring sessions. 
The talk of a trailer and towing quickly changed to talk of just jumping in the “Bugeye” and driving down to Sebring. Not a big deal you say. Well when you consider that in the years that Butch has owned his “Bugeye” he has never driven more than a few miles from home. Between home and Sebring there were more than one hundred miles there and another one hundred miles back. Those one hundred miles include a run on a stretch of Interstate where seventy miles per hour is considered slow, a drive over the very steep twenty story tall Sunshine Skyway Bridge and miles of two lane road populated by pine trees, orange groves, snakes, the occasional black bear and little else.
I told Butch that I would be at the track photographing the racing and to call me if he decided to head down. On Saturday morning I got the call. Butch was on his way. I could barely understand what he was saying due to the wind noise created by driving top down at speed but I could make out that he had crossed the first obstacle, the mountainous Sunshine Skyway Bridge. Not bad for a fifty-one year old car with 48 horsepower.
A couple hours later I got a second call. “I’m here. I’m at the front gate.” Butch announced, “I had to stop once on the way because of some vapor lock but I made it.”
A couple of minutes later I got a third call. “I’m still at the front gate, dead in the water. I think it’s flooded.” Butch reported.
Butch then said those famous words spoken by anyone who has owned a British sports car, “I need a push.”
Photographer Mike Beckers and I headed for the front gate. As luck, (which is needed by anyone driving a British sports car), would have it Butch had managed to get the “Bugeye” restarted and was heading to the track touring line where despite the Porsches, Lotuses, Corvettes and a wide variety of other performance cars lined up the” little white Bugeye that could” became the center of attention. Like moths to a flame, car fans waiting for their laps around the track had to take a moment to check out the “Bugeye”.
As a small crowd formed around Butch and his “Bugeye”, Butch reveled in telling everyone about his car and the fact he had just driven it down from the St. Petersburg area. The strong aroma of gasoline did not dampen Butch’s spirit or slow his bragging about what his little white “Bugeye” had accomplished. Using a wooden handle of a screw driver as a hammer, a few hits on the front SU carburetor seemed to solve the fuel leaking issue.
Then it was time to take to the track. As I stood next to the “Bugeye” prepared to push, the tiny four cylinder engine fired up seeming to say, “Let us take to the track!” I jumped into the passenger seat and off we went and onto one of the most famous race tracks in the world.
The phrase “race track” was not lost on Butch who immediately began thrashing the tiny “Bugeye” around Sebring’s sweeping turn one, tight turn three and tighter hairpin. Hard around turn ten, thirteen, and sixteen and down the back straight. The tires squealed and the brakes strained but the little white “Bugeye” proved that when they are running well, there is nothing more fun to drive than an old British sports car. The smile on Butch’s face proved that point. There are times when a man and his car become one and this was one of those times.
After two laps and eight miles of exertion Butch knew it was time to rest his fifty year old car and drove the “Bugeye” back to the paddock. A quick post hot lap’s inspection showed only a minor oil stain on the left rear tire but otherwise the old girl had held up her end of the bargain.
After a quick burger, Butch again fired up the “Bugeye”, this time for the run home. “I think I’ll be all right” Butch said as he headed out of the paddock and back to Treasure Island. Two thirds of his mission completed, I hoped that the Sunshine Skyway Bridge wasn’t going to be Butch’s bridge too far.
A couple of hours later I had not heard anything from Butch since he left which seemed like one of those no news is good news moments. As I was getting ready to head back to St. Petersburg I gave Butch a call to make sure he wasn’t broken down somewhere.
“I just crossed over the Skyway Bridge” Butch answered with wind noise in the background, “I can coast home from here.”
No records, no National Geographic Special, just a guy and his car doing something that most people wouldn’t and having a great time in the process. That is after all, what owning an old British sports car is all about
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