The Leyburn Sprints have been running now for the last 14 years, the event celebrates the running of the first Grand Prix in Queensland some 60 years ago. This year was one of the best events to date and with one of the largest recorded spectator crowds the organizers and officials must be congratulated and should be proud of the event, with proceeds going back into the next event to make it even better. The other beneficiaries of the proceeds are the local Leyburn community projects like the Rural Fire Brigade, the Leyburn State School P &C and the Leyburn RSL just to name a few.
There were 190 competitors all ready to attack the 1.1Km track around the houses in Leyburn, they ranged from a 1930 Ford A Model Indy Special, a 1999 Porsche GT3, 2 Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 9’s just to list a few cars and only one Rotary Hillclimb Racing Car of Darren Duffield (RPV 01)
Darren’s first run was just to have a look around the track as he has not driven there before, but it was the fastest time. This continued for the next 2 runs with Darren in his Rotary Hillclimb Racing Car having the fastest time. One of the other hillclimb racing cars running was Bob Haines in his HRC Mk1 that he built, Bob was not far behind Darren finishing 3rd outright and 2nd in class. Darren’s last run on Saturday was going even quicker until one of the rear wheels drifted out onto the grass just before one of the corners and the car lost complete rear grip and it spun around. It is hard to tell if it went around twice or three times as the dust covered the car quickly if you have a look at the in car video you can see how it looked.
Darren continued his excellent driving pushing the car hard on the other runs on Sunday to finish 1st outright and 1st in class. Well done Darren good to see the Rotary Hillclimb Racing Cars winning such a respected event like the Leyburn Sprints, keep up the good work Darren.
To view incar footage of RPV01 spinning off track click the link below
click here to view incar footage of spinning off track at leyburn