{"id":841113,"date":"2026-08-03T04:17:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T04:17:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/841113\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T04:17:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T04:17:13","slug":"f1-news-government-push-for-leyburn-recognition-at-australian-grand-prix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/841113\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 news: Government push for Leyburn recognition at Australian Grand Prix"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1282\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/XPB_1398053_HiRes.jpg\" class=\"sc-hero-img\" alt=\"Government push for Leyburn recognition at Australian Grand Prix\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"eager\"  \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tA general view of the Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit. Image: Moy\/XPB Images<\/p>\n<p>Mr Littleproud, whose electorate contains the small township of Leyburn, has contacted the CEO of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation in an effort to have its motorsport history recognised on a global scale.<\/p>\n<p>The town notably hosts the annual Historic Leyburn Sprints, which this year celebrates its 30th anniversary.<\/p>\n<p>This year also marks the 77th anniversary of the 1949 Australian Grand Prix held in the area, which will be celebrated across the weekend, with three original cars from the race competing in the Sprints.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMelbourne is rightly regarded as the sporting capital of Australia, and Albert Park stands as one of the finest circuits on the Formula 1 calendar,\u201d Mr Littleproud said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut this history isn\u2019t just Melbourne\u2019s story, it belongs to towns like Leyburn too.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNaming one of the circuit\u2019s unnamed corners \u2018Leyburn\u2019 would be a low-cost, fitting gesture that recognises where it all started.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to thank Tricia [Chant] and the whole Historic Leyburn Sprints committee for the work they do to keep this piece of our history front and centre.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ll keep advocating to make sure Leyburn\u2019s place in Grand Prix history gets the recognition it deserves.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sprints president Tricia Chant welcomed Mr Littleproud\u2019s advocacy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLeyburn is a tiny rural community with a big history, highlighted by the 1949 Australian Grand Prix,\u201d president Chant said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ll see three surviving cars from 1949 and several later Grand Prix drivers visit the race site during our 30th anniversary celebrations on 15-16 August.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLeyburn has a direct link to Melbourne\u2019s modern-day Formula 1 grand prix, and it would be wonderful to see this enshrined with a dedicated corner at Albert Park, thanks to this proposal by Mr Littleproud.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The 30th anniversary of the Historic Leyburn Sprints will be held on August 15-16, where over 240 cars have entered the event.<\/p>\n<p>As a platinum partner of the Sprints, Speedcafe will also present the official live stream of the event.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A general view of the Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit. Image: Moy\/XPB Images Mr Littleproud, whose electorate contains&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":841114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[60147,64,63,817,813,816,413545,85],"class_list":["post-841113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-albert-park","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-leyburn-sprints","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=841113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/841114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=841113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=841113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=841113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}