Stars line up at historic sprints

Julian Luke | 2nd July 2009

A HOST of famous former and current racers, including Dick Johnson and John French, are set to make an appearance at this year's Historic Leyburn Sprints.

This is the 14th year of the sprints and the 60th anniversary of the Australian Grand Prix, which was held on the RAAF airbase near Clifton in 1949, Leyburn Sprints event spokesman Chris Nixon said.

“The whole reason for the establishment of the Leyburn Sprints was to celebrate the running of the first Australian Grand Prix on the RAAF airbase at Clifton, pretty much at the end of the war. This year will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the 1949 Australian Grand Prix,” Mr Nixon said.

He said they were currently fielding expressions of interest, which would close on July 17, from which they would send out about 200 invitations.

“The stage we're at, at the moment, is we are seeking applications for entries and when those applications close the organisers will issue invitations to those people we are able to invite,” Mr Nixon said.

“There are in fact a limited number of entries available because of the nature of the program, there are only so many cars that we can get through during the weekend.

“We believe we're going to get a very good roll-up and we're hoping we'll be able to bring back the historic flavour of the event.”

Mr Nixon said in coming weeks they would be able to unveil some big Queensland motor sport stars who would attend this year's sprints, held on August 15 and 16.

“We are hoping we will have some V8 Supercar personalities with us, both drivers past and present including some of Queensland's biggest names in motor racing,” he said.

This year the Leyburn Sprints Committee would predominately target the local area with any media campaigns, Mr Nixon said.

“Our aim is to attract as many people as possible from the Darling Downs... particularly people from Toowoomba and Warwick,” he said.