Sport
20 July, 2023
Drivers gearing up for Leyburn Sprints
A rush of last-minute entries has ensured the 27th Historic Leyburn Sprints will start with a capacity field of historic, classic and performance cars on 19-20 August.
Organisers have promised the Sprints will field at least 220 cars dating from the 1920s to modern-day models racing the clock on Leyburn’s 1.0 kilometre round-the-houses course.
The final list, when published, will include around 40 Leyburn first-timers, eight teenagers contesting the Junior Trophy and even one driver aged more than 80 in one of the most diversified events in years.
Four-wheel stars will include everything from a 1922 Ford Model T racer, to a Brabham single-seater once owned by Formula 1 team founder Frank Williams and racing for the first time in Australia, to a thundering Le Mans-style Ford Shelby Daytona coupe replica.
Hillclimb champion Dean Amos will be aiming to win his eighth trophy for outright fastest time in one of the quickest sprint and hillclimb cars in the country, his British-built Gould GR55B V8.
Sprints President Tricia Chant said up to 15,000 visitors were expected to pack the 1850s gold-rush town.
“The Leyburn district has a permanent population of fewer than 600 people, so when the Sprints come to town for the weekend the atmosphere is fantastic,” Ms Chant said.
“But it’s nothing the locals haven’t seen before - the Sprints festival celebrates the running of the 1949 Leyburn Australian Grand Prix on the town’s outskirts and there were 30,000 spectators that day!
“But in 1949 there wasn’t anything except the racing to entertain those spectators, while Leyburn 2023 will be loaded with off-track attractions for all the family, from our Shannons Show ‘n’ Shine and Vintage Caravan displays, to race car and helicopter rides, market stalls, live music in the 1863-licensed Royal Hotel and great country-style food.”
Tickets are available online or at the gate, priced for adults at $25 each day or $35 for the weekend. Children under 14 enter free and street parking is free.
