Leyburn Sprints 23rd & 24th August 2014 – Results.
The 19th annual Leyburn Sprints, had a field of 173 drivers, a diverse line-up of classic, historic and performance cars ranging in vintage from 1935 to 2014. More than 100 cars also entered the Shannons Show ‘n’ Shine, this was won outright by a 1960 Chrysler Windsor 300. This year also had the inaugural Retro Caravan Show Off this drew 22 entrants, big interest from spectators and an organisers’ promise for an even bigger show in 2015.
New South Wales driver Dean Amos broke the track record Amos, put his 1997 Gould-Judd V8 open-wheeler around the houses in 44.40 seconds. Amos, Neil Lewis in a DBF1 and Warwick Hutchinson in his Rotary Powered open-wheeler duelled throughout the second day on a dry track. However, Hutchinson was hampered by having no aerodynamic aids on his car after damaging the front wing when he over-shot the first corner on the wet track on Saturday and ending up in one of the hay-bales.
Forth outright was Harold Von-Rappard in a Dallara F392 open-wheeler, Harold and & his son Michael shared the driving but Harold won out over Michael punted the car around the track in 47.858 sec for 4th outright. Michael did a good job as well with 8th outright.
There was only 2 rotary powered cars running at this year’s event one being Matthew Clift in his very quick Mazda R100, this sounded as good as it looked and he did well to finish 55th outright with a time of 55.37 sec. well done Matthew hopefully we will see you next year.
The other rotary powered car was Warwick Hutchinson had issues with a hay-bale on Saturday and ended up running Sunday without any wings, the car was very nervous but he did not have and encounters with any more hay-bales.
Sprints President Ann Collins said organisers were happy to welcome a big crowd, despite threatening weather on Saturday. “Nothing seems to dampen the enthusiasm of spectators and competitors for the Historic Leyburn Sprints,” Mrs Collins said. “The 19th Sprints were another great year with great cars, great competition and a unique grassroots atmosphere. Next year will be our 20th anniversary and we’re already planning some special celebrations around the commemoration of the 1949 Leyburn Australian Grand Prix.”
Top 10 Outright Results for the weekend –
1st Dean Amos (Gould GR37) – 44.40 sec. (New Track Record)
2nd Neal Lewis (DBF 1) – 45.14 sec.
3rd Warwick Hutchinson (RPV02 Turbo Rotary) – 45.86 sec.
4th Harold Von-Rappard (Dallara F392) – 47.85 sec.
5th Ray Vandersee (Skelta G Force S/C) – 48.367 sec.
6th Mark Crespan (Ford Cobra) – 48.369 sec.
7th Grant Watson(Prosport Eclipse) – 49.65 sec.
8th Micheal Von-Rappard (Dallara F392) – 49.75 sec.
9th Nicholas Contojohn (Subaru WRX Sti) – 50.088 sec.
10th Geoff Taunton (GPT Cobra) – 50.10 sec.
Once again the organizers of this event should be congratulated as the weekend was a great success and we are looking forward to running in the next year’s event. The next hillclimb event that the rotary Hillclimb racing car will be running is Australian Hillclimb Championships at Newcastle NSW on the 1st to the 3rd November 2014.
For more info on the AHC you can visit the MG Car Club Newcastle Hillclimb website.
“CLICK HERE” to visit the MG Car Club – web site.
Some of the Photos for this entry were taken & supplied by Mel White (aka rotor-head)