The quiet Darling Downs town of Leyburn two and half hours west of Brisbane comes alive for two days each year for the running of the Leyburn Sprints.
The Sprints are held to commemorate the running of the Australian Grand Prix which was held at Leyburn after the World War II
Cars lined up at the start ready to head out on the 1km sprint through Leyburn.
On September, 18, 1949 the Grand Prix drew a crowd of 30,000 people to the remote Darling Downs town. The race was 150 miles long and drew machines from backyards, sheds and more “exotic” race cars from Europe.
The original Australian Grand Prix (AGP) was held in Victoria at Phillips Island. After eight years there, the AGP was held at Victor Harbor in SA (1937), the now iconic Mount Panorama (1938 and 1947) again in South Australia in 1939 in the very pretty Barossa Valley town of Nuriootpa and at Point Cook in Victoria (1948). The AGP was held in Leyburn in 1949.
Established in 1966, the Leyburn Sprints is a 1km sprint through the streets of the town.
Today the tradition of the Grand Prix lives on in the mix of drivers turn up with their cars to test themselves and their machines against the clock through the streets of the town.
This year's was the 19th running of this event even though the air strip that was home to US Air Force during World War IIand then by squadrons of the RAAF up until the airstrip was abandoned in 1945.
