By Tania Phillips
If Peter Brock was King of the Mountain then Lismore driver Dean Amos is on his way to being the Legend of Leyburn.
Amos, the current Australian Hillclimb Champion, will line up in the 28th Historic Leyburn Sprints at Leyburn at the weekend to not only defend his 2023 title but he will be looking to secure his ninth Leyburn win.
A line-up of more than 300 cars and famous drivers plus a band of volunteers dedicated to keeping their Darling Downs township on the map will be all part of the action.
The Sprints, 17-18 August, will mark the 75th anniversary of Leyburn hosting the Australian Grand Prix on a former wartime airfield just outside the town, which is 193 kilometres west of Brisbane. It’s expected to be the biggest local event since the grand prix of 18 September 1949.
And right in the middle of it all expect to see the unassuming Amos who reckons he’d go to the Sprints even if he wasn’t driving in it.
“I’ve missed a couple (in recent times) – 2014 was the first time I won it,” he said.
Amos won six in a row from 2014 to 2019 before Covid put a halt to the event in 2020 and 2021 he couldn’t get across the border due to Covid restrictions before he returned to win in 2022 and again last year.
“To be honest it is a fantastic meeting, it’s not very often we get to run around the streets of a town,” he said.
“Those meetings are few and far between now. But the variety of cars, the spectators, the whole event is really good. Yes we do well there but even if we didn’t I’d definitely be going there. And if I wasn’t able to race, I’d be going as a spectator, that’s how good the event is. It’s a credit to them. Everyone drags their cars out and has a run. It really is a great event – it’s getting bigger and bigger. I think this year’s going to be probably bigger than any of them.”
Amos will be bringing his distinctive red Gould GR55B again this year.
“We ran an older car from 2014 to 2017 and then we changed to the Gould GR55B,” he said.
“It’s an English-built hill-climb car. It’s go a Nicholson/McLaren three and a half litre V8 in it which makes over 650 horsepower at the wheels. The car weighs 460 kg ready to race so it’s very light. A lot of the cars that are running at Leyburn are purpose-built hill climb/sprint cars so they’re high horsepower and very light weight.
“Having a light hill climb car is the secret to winning Leyburn. Quicker to get going and quicker to stop the less weight you have. There are cars heavier than ours, we’re considered heavy as a hill climb car but we do have the horse power too….and aero, we have a lot of aero on the car.”
Amos started off racing Karts when he was 15 following his dad into racing.
“My father raced Karts as well, he did a bit of touring car stuff and hill climbs when he was younger so I guess it comes from him,” he said.
“My dad wanted to run hill climbers and as I got older I got more interested in that type of racing. Dad bought the car because it’s a purpose-built hill climb car. We bought the car wanting to do well in that category. Dad bought it and I eventually got a love for it, took the reigns and went from there.”
And while Amos is keen to get number nine this year, he isn’t expecting an easy race of it.
“You definitely have to earn them,” he said.
“Even though I’ve won a few the competition is pretty strong. I’m current Australian Hill Climb Champion, I won that in 2023 but Warwick Hutchinson and Brett Bull, they’re from Queensland and they’re top five in Australia as well. There is a lot of competition up in Queensland and then you’ve got Michael Von Rappard, he’s come back into the sport, he went off doing circuit racing but he’s come back into the sport and he’s very, very good. There is definitely going to be some competition this year which is good. It’s going to be tough to win number nine, I’ll definitely earn it.”
Amos said it was a stop start sort of track but pretty fast.
“There are a lot of 90 degree turns but fairly long straights for our sort of racing for hill climb or sprint racing,” he explained.
The biggest weekend in Sprints history will feature more than 240 historic, classic and performance cars compete on a 1.0 kilometre, closed-street track that starts near the front door of the 1863-licensed Royal Hotel. The entry list includes everything from a 99-year-old “Baby Austin” with an 84-year-old driver, to a 350 kph Indianapolis 500 racer.
Around 80 more cars are expected for a Show ‘n’ Shine display on Sunday and up to 30 vintage caravans will add to the interest and colour.
Up to four surviving cars from the 1949 race will be on display, while fans will be able to meet GP drivers from later eras – 1977 winner Warwick Brown, plus Bruce Allison, John Bowe and Charlie O’Brien – along with touring car identities Dick Johnson, Ron Harrop and Brian Gelding.
The Sprints competition starts at 8am on Saturday and Sunday. Adult tickets are available on-line or at the gate for $25 a day or $35 for the weekend, with children under 14 free. On-street parking is free
