Historic Leyburn Sprints legend Mike Collins dies aged 74

The Southern Downs community is in mourning following the death of motorsports legend and dedicated volunteer Mike Collins, with the ‘hardworking big bloke’ leaving behind an incredible legacy after getting his hometown “back on the map”.

The Southern Downs will this week farewell a community icon and sporting giant following the death of Historic Leyburn Sprints founder Mike Collins.

Mr Collins passed away peacefully in Toowoomba Hospital on Thursday, aged 74.

Alongside his late first wife, Ann, Mr Collins was a driving force behind the renowned Leyburn racing event in 1996.

The grassroots event has grown to become an annual motorsports classic, attracting high-profile racing identities like Dick Johnson and being named 2017 Queensland Motor Sport Event of the Year.

Mr Collins had a lifelong passion for motorsport, competing in races and rallies from a young age and driving a variety of his own cars at the annual Historic Leyburn Sprints.

Daughter Tricia, who took the Sprints reins from her father following her mother’s death in 2018, paid tribute to her beloved dad.

“My father has left a wonderful legacy,” she said.

“He was a gentleman and a gentle man, loved and respected throughout the motorsport community as an enthusiastic racer, but above all as a hardworking big bloke who helped put our little town of Leyburn back on the map and brought its community huge social and economic benefits.”

Leyburn Historic Sprints founder Mike Collins has died aged 74.

Mr Collins was a tireless volunteer throughout the Sprints’ 25-year history and served as race director and on the organising committee, and drove trucks and tractors to help build the temporary street course.

In recent years he raced in the Australian Trans-Am Championship in a 1965 Ford Mustang that he had purchased in the United States to contest the 2012 Pikes Peak hillclimb in Colorado.

He was preparing to return to spectate at Pikes Peak later this month when his health declined, but he had visited a Trans-Am event at Queensland Raceway just last weekend.

The Historic Leyburn Sprints was launched after Mr Collins and other community members saw an opportunity to commemorate the running of the 1949 Australian Grand Prix on an ex-wartime airfield near the former goldmining town, an event that reportedly attracted 30,000 spectators.

Leyburn Historic Sprints founder Mike Collins has died aged 74.

“Realising the significance of 1999 as the 50th anniversary of the Australian Grand Prix in Leyburn, I thought we could lay the platform for a huge celebration,” he said at the time.

“In conjunction with the Historic Racing Car Club we surveyed the original site of the Grand Prix, but it was deemed too far gone to renovate and so the concept of establishing the sprints in the town was born.”

Thousands of drivers in cars dating from the 1920s to modern-day have contested the Sprints over the years, with up to 15,000 spectators lining the round-the-houses course.

Mr Collins is survived by his second wife Lyn Zirbel; children Paul, Mark, Wayne, Chris and Tricia and their respective partners Kerryn, Christine, Amanda, Joanna and Jamie; and grandchildren Taylah, Mitchell, Breanna, Liam, Summer, Georgia and Olivia.

A funeral will be held at St Matthew’s Catholic Church, 5818 Toowoomba-Karara Road, Leyburn on Friday, June 10 at 10am.

The service will be video-streamed at www.burstows.com.au/tributecentre.

The 26th Historic Leyburn Sprints will be staged on 20-21 August.