Leyburn Sprints 27th & 28th August 2011.
The 16th annual Sprints, commemorating the 1949 Australian Grand Prix, had 210 entries from historic, classic and high-performance cars built between 1926 and 2010.
The Leyburn Sprints is one of the longest continuously-running historic motorsport events in the country and again it was very well supported this year by spectators, competitors and sponsors.
Saturday was well and truly wet as the rain was heavy for most of the day, although track times were affected until rain eased and the sun came out late Saturday, organisers were pleased with the overall outcome of the event. On Sunday, the weather changed for the better and a full complement of competitors, a big spectator crowd and 80 glittering cars in the Shannon’s Show n’ Shine competition turned out in warm, sunny weather for an action-packed day.
Times continued to tumble on a drying track, with the top drivers trading tit-for-tat fastest laps throughout the day. Spectators also enjoyed a spirited unofficial competition in the V8 Supercar Drivers Challenge between veteran Dick Johnson and young guns James Moffatt of Johnson’s Jim Beam Racing team and Alex Davison from Irwin Racing, who all shared three classic racing cars. Proceeds from the not-for-profit event will benefit community organisations and projects.
The rotary hillclimb racing car of Warwick Hutchinson, went very well for the first time at this event with an outright win. Click here to view in-car footage.
Top 5 Outright Results for the week end –
1 Warwick Hutchinson (Van Diemen RF92-RPV02 Turbo Rotary) 47.6584 sec. (New Track Record)
2 Ray Vendersee (Skelta G-Force) 49.4597
3 Grant Watson (Prosport Eclipse) 50.1378
4 Garry Ford (Ford Escort RS5000) 50.1900
5 Paul Mienert (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9) 51.0086
Once again the organizers of this event should be congratulated as the weekend was a great success and we are looking forward to next year’s event.
The next hillclimb event that the rotary hillclimb racing car will be running is Round 5 of the series at Mt Cotton on the 15th & 16th October 2011, come along and see the RPV02 running 2 drivers for the first time.
Some of the photos on this entry were supplied by “Steve Johns” and “Phil Harrys”, thanks guys for you great photos.