Valance cut out, factory?

[Andrew Griffith <Andrew.Griffith@ReadRite.com>]

Hi Gang,
It's seems to be slow so I've got one more little biddy question...

I Just noticed that behind the front bumper of my '62 MKII Sprite there's a
big oval hole between the two bumper mount holes in my valance. It looks to
me it was put in to get more air to the radiator (da) and it was cut very
straight & clean, but is this factory?
I've only seen one other car, a photo, with the same hole and I've seen a
lot of race setup Sprites w/ out bumpers, but on the other hand I've only
been into these cars for about 6 months and owned mine for 4.

-Drew