Media Release

DAKAR RALLY ACE BRUCE GARLAND TO CONTEST LEYBURN SPRINTS

MEDIA RELEASE || Thursday 12 August 2010

ANOTHER high-profile driver has been announced for next week’s Leyburn Motor Sprints – and he’ll be hoping there are no elephants, jungles or deep swamps around the Queensland Darling Downs street course.

Sydneysider Bruce Garland, a two-time competitor in the South American Dakar rally-raid, has confirmed his Leyburn entry after finishing second yesterday in the gruelling 2010 Asia Cross-country Rally in Thailand.

He’ll swap his Dakar-specification Isuzu D-MAX 4x4 ute for a classic 2.0 litre 1979 Ford Escort and, more than likely, some witty one-liners with old mate Dick Johnson, who also is competing at Leyburn.

RECORD ENTRY OF 212 TO START LEYBURN SPRINTS

MEDIA RELEASE || Saturday 14 August 2010

A RECORD 212 entries have been accepted for the 2010 Leyburn Motor Sprints on the Queensland Darling Downs on 21-22 August.

The 15th annual celebration of the 1949 Australian Grand Prix at Leyburn will see racing cars, sports cars and touring cars as old as 1932 and as new as 2010 race against the clock on a one-kilometre street course. Cars will come from as far as Townsville and Victoria to the historic former gold-mining town, where the 1863-licensed Royal Hotel of retired rugby league great Shane Webcke allows spectators with a glass in their hand a view of the cars forming up for the starting line.

V8 SUPERCAR FALCON YOUNG GUNS TO SAMPLE FORD CLASSICS AT LEYBURN SPRINTS

MEDIA RELEASE || Tuesday 10 August 2010

SHANE Van Gisbergen and Tim Slade, two of the youngest and most talented Ford drivers in V8 Supercar racing, will take the wheel of some blue-oval classics to entertain spectators at the Leyburn Sprints on the Darling Downs on 21-22 August.

The Stone Brothers Racing drivers will swap their regular FG Ford Falcon V8 Supercars for a 1971 Falcon GT HO and 1974 Ford Escort for demonstration runs on the one-kilometre round-the-houses track during the Sunday program. And they will share the cars with a Ford racing legend from another era, Dick Johnson.

VOTERS RACE INTO LEYBURN SPRINTS ON ELECTION DAY

MEDIA RELEASE || Tuesday 3 August 2010

ELECTION day August 21 in the usually peaceful Darling Downs township of Leyburn is likely to be one of the busiest and noisiest on record when the Leyburn Sprints attracts thousands of people to watch the round-the-houses time trials – and vote. Election officials will open a polling booth at the RSL club in the town, which usually has a population of around just 300.

But with spectators and competitors expected to pour in to Leyburn from north, south, east and west polling facilities will have to be upgraded to cater for a higher number of absentee voters.

RACING LEGENDS AND SLICK NEW TRACK PROMISE

MEDIA RELEASE || Thursday 8 July 2010

Dick in Falcon GT HO - Leyburn

FORD V8 legend Dick Johnson and Dakar Rally star Bruce Garland, two of Australian motorsport's most colourful personalities, won't race straight for the chequered when they contest the annual historic Leyburn Sprints on the Queensland Darling Downs next month – they're bound to go sideways!

Three-time Bathurst winner Johnson will take time out from running his pace-setting V8 Supercar team to drive a Ford Falcon GT HO powered by a thundering American NASCAR racing truck engine at the 21-22 August event.

Garland, who finished an incredible 11th outright aboard an Isuzu ute in the 2009 Dakar desert raid in South America, has entered his "other car", a classic rally 1979 Ford Escort RS2000.

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