By DANE LILLINGSTONE
THE 20th annual Historic Leyburn Sprints ripped through Leyburn on the weekend.
Over 220 cars participated in the annual event, held to commemorate the 1949 Australian Grand Prix. The big prize on offer, the Col Furness Memorial Trophy, will be awarded for the outright fastest time.
For a second consecutive year, Dean Amos took down the big one in his Gould GR37 Judd V8. He managed to navigate the 1 kilometre track in 42.954 seconds and in the process shaving more than a second off his 2014 lap record.
He narrowed out tough competition from 2012-’13 winner Warwick Hutchinson and his rotary-engined Van Dieman.
Amos said the winning lap was a blur.
“I actually hardly remember that run – I just pulled my finger out and went for it. My hands were shaking on the wheel as I crossed the line,” he said.
The event managed to build on previous years with Saturday’s crowd alone believed to be double the total attendance in 2014.
The weekend featured 140 cars in a Shannons Shine n’ Shine, 25 vintage caravans, a sold-out legends dinner and appearances by three famous racing cars of yesteryear, Sir Jack Brabham’s 1987 BT23C-1 Formula 2, the Mildren-Waggott ‘Yellow Submarine’ and 1965 Bathurst winner Bo Seton’s Ford Capri.
Warwick’s Graeme Collinswon won the top prize in the Show n’ Shine for his restored 1950 Morris J delivery van.
Sprints Organising Committee president Ann Collins said it was one of their best yet.
“The variety of cars we had this weekend, from a 1925 Austin to a Indianapolis roadster to a Group B Audi Quattro, a Goggoobile, one of Sir Jack Brabham’s cars and just about anything else you could imagine, was mind-blowing,” she said.
“The weather was perfect and the crowd was enormous. I think they were drawn by our 20th anniversary, the entry list and the chance to meet our Legends John French, Bob Holden, Bruce Allison, Bo Seton, Jim Bertram, David Harding, Brian Michelmore, Paul Stokell and John English.
“With more than 1800 runs across the weekend, the fans certainly got their money’s worth. It was certainly one of our most memorable Sprints.”
