LEYBURN SPRINTS ORGANISERS PUSH TOWARD AUGUST DATE
PHOTO: The Historic Leyburn Sprints organisers are working toward the scheduled 22-23 August 2020 date (Pic: Trapnell Creations)
LEYBURN (Queensland) - Organisers of the Historic Leyburn Sprints will press on with preparations for the 25th annual event on 22-23 August, despite current uncertainty due to the Covid-19 virus.
The Sprints’ community-based organising committee decided on the action at a meeting in the southern Darling Downs township last weekend.
“The event is still five months away and we have all our fingers crossed that we will be able to go ahead,” Sprints President Tricia Chant said.
“But there’s a lot of work to do and we need to tackle it now, regardless of Covid-19.
2019 Historic Leyburn Sprints Gallery available now
Trapnell Creations have once again created a gallery of images from this year's event which you can view and where you can purchase any images you would like to keep in high resolution format.
View the images using the Gallery 2019 link in the menu above, or click here.
AMOS SETS NEW LAP BENCHMARK ON RECORD LEYBURN SPRINTS WEEKEND
PHOTOS: Top, Dean Amos wheels his Gould GR55B-Judd V8 to a Leyburn lap record. Below from left, Fastest Historic competitor Keith Carling (Tiga), Shannons Show 'n' Shine Best Car Ray Laney's 1971 Ford XY Falcon GT, Vintage Caravan winner Tony Sullivan's 1969 Olympic Riviera with 1960 Chevrolet El Camino, Ready to race! (All pics Trapnell Creations)
LEYBURN (Queensland) - Spectators at this weekend’s 24th Historic Leyburn Sprints saw around 210 historic, classic and modern cars race the clock on the streets of the little Darling Downs town, but the most colourful vehicles were likely to be found off-track.
Driving a British-built Gould GR55B-Judd V8 single-seater, Amos clocked 39.794 seconds in the 1.0 kilometre round-the-houses time trials to claim his six-straight Col Furness Memorial Trophy for fastest time among more than 200 historic, classic and modern competitors.
Good track conditions yielded the long-awaited record, more than 1.4 sec. ahead of his nearest rival, on the fourth of seven timed runs at the cooler end of an unseasonably hot winter Saturday – but Amos predicts he can go even faster.
“I definitely think there’s a .38 (sec) there if the conditions are right,” he said.
“Saturday was good but we had a couple of little problems that prevented us going faster on Sunday. It’s great to win here for the sixth time and we’ll definitely be back to give it another shot in 2020.”
2019 Results available now
A full listing of results from the 2019 Historic Leyburn Sprints is available for download now on the Results & Docs page (click here).
ENDURANCE RACE LEGENDS TAKE THE SHORT TRACK FOR LEYBURN SPRINTS
LEYBURN (Queensland) - They’ve pounded the asphalt over hundreds of thousands of kilometres around some of Australia’s most demanding circuits including Mount Panorama, but eight renowned drivers spanning almost 30 years of endurance racing victories will be welcomed at a track just one kilometre long at the 24th Historic Leyburn Sprints this weekend.
Dick Johnson, Kevin Bartlett, Colin Bond, John French, Bob Holden, Fred Gibson, Jim Bertram and Bill Gates are among a host of racing personalities from yesteryear invited as special guests at the Sprints’ 70th anniversary celebrations of the Australian Grand Prix.
The grand prix, the first national motor race staged in Queensland, was run on a former war-time aerodrome circuit just outside Leyburn on 18 September 1949. Watched by a crowd estimated at 30,000 – including the much younger French and Bertram - the 240 km event was won by John Crouch in a French-built Delahaye racer.
This year’s big-name guests, also joined by other motorsport leading lights including Bruce Garland, Don Holland, Brian Michelmore, Ian Maudsley, Bruce Richardson and John English, have no grands prix but many other high-profile victories to their credit.
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