On the Road to Roma (and ruin), with stops at Lightning Ridge

Cars tackle the tight corners of the Leyburn Sprint track. Picture: Paige Ashby

Our first two epic Aussie road trips – not suitable for influencers or electric vehicles – had a huge response (two letters and a telex).

Here’s our next two. Yes, all those readers, you can do these in an ordinary car and take the kiddies, but possibly need a tetanus shot.

Roma to Emerald: Big rigs, bigger trees and Jesus-shaped rocks (sort of)

Where:The Great Inland Way – an easy drive from Roma to Carnarvon Gorge, to Emerald, to Roma (about 1200km). If you have the rest of your life in front of you, you can go the whole (inland) way starting at Hebel (pop: 62, with one hotel on the cane toad/cockroach border) to Cairns (about 2300km).

Roma has the Big Rig, and oil and gas museum, Roma saleyards, the oldest winery in Queensland, the world’s biggest bottle tree and a heritage butcher shop. Rome or Roma? No contest.

Roma’s Big Rig museum.

Just 268km north of Roma lies an adventure playground that the Queensland government tells me is “both culturally sacred and ecologically mind-blowing – and it’s calling your name”. Now, when I went there, I didn’t hear the 73 bird species, 60 mammals, 22 frogs and 90 reptiles (including the very welcoming red-bellied black snake and eastern brown snake) yelling “John” or “Mick” or both. They just tried to kill us.

Anyway, lots of big rocks, great ancient art and, once again, don’t fall for the bushwalking caper – the helicopter tour is easier.

Springsure is known for its sewage treatment plant and the Virgin Rock, named because it used to look like the Virgin Mary cradling the baby Jesus. The Jesus rock part fell away, but the uncradling Virgin Mary rock remains.

Goondiwindi to Lightning Ridge: Opals, wombats and the most useful winery for parents

Where: Another easy drive from Brisbane to Goondiwindi, to St George, to Lightning Ridge through Nindigully, Thallon and Dirranbandi. (750km one way, 1500km return)

Your new motoring team member is this paper’s own Emmaline Stigwood. Stiggy is driving her partner and the kids on the route established by Mick and me, so anyone can do it.

Goondiwindi: See the white bas-relief representation of the Goondiwindi grey, Gunsynd, at Apex Park and then look at the charming main street.

Gundy to St George (200km): Take the kiddies to Riversands Winery for a free personalised tasting of their award-winning wines. That’ll keep them quiet while they are checking out Stavros Margaritis’s Unique Egg art gallery and hunting shop (hand-carved emu eggs and guns).

Goondiwindi’s most famous export, Gunsynd at Flemington in 1973.

Snap a selfie with Willie the wombat (a critically endangered northern hairy-nosed one) at Nindigully. Nindigully is four houses and a pub on a riverbank. But marvel at the dramatic silo art and watering hole mural (lit at night).

Lot to love at Lightning Ridge. A two-million-year-old bore and I’m not pointing at my co-driver. But at the end of a hard day of fossicking and exploring, there is nothing quite as therapeutic as a long soak in the naturally heated artesian bore baths. Opal mining (bring cash again for the best deal). Visit the Bottle House.

Leyburn Sprints: 15,000 metal heads, 200 cars and one very wet swimming pool

It’s only three hours from the world’s biggest bottle tree to Leyburn. You have to be there on the 23rd and 24th of August for the Leyburn Sprints, a gritty, glorious little event where 15,000 punters descend on a town of 500 for one of Australia’s oddest but most beloved motorsport spectacles.

Fans flock to meet guest motor-racing personalities Warwick Brown, Dick Johnson, John Bowe, Bruce Allison, Ron Harrop, Charlie O’Brien, Brian Gelding, the Sultan and yours truly.

For one weekend only, Leyburn’s suburban streets become a racetrack. Hay bales line the kerbs. Kids hang off fences (not near the track).

Race cars go into the school swimming pool. And more than 200 drivers in everything from classic Austins to 1989 Beamers, push to 140km/h through a 1km street circuit where the speed limit usually maxes out at 40km/h.

F1 wrap: Piastri leads, Tsunoda hits everyone and Jack might be replaced by Val

While Leyburn has nostalgia and noise, Austria gave us drama and destruction. Verstappen’s Red Bull ring weekend ended three corners in after Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli mistimed a brake release and speared the Clog off track.

That put Mad Max 61 points behind Oscar Piastri in the title race, although anyone counting him out hasn’t been watching F1 for the past five years.

On Sunday it was McLaren one-two with Oscar making the mistakes. Our easternmost state’s Liam Lawson won the gold star for very good driving while The Hulk won best old bloke of the day. Ferrari shot themselves in the piede bringing Hamo in for a second pit stop he didn’t want or need.

Meanwhile, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff is keeping the door wide open for Mad Max in 2026. Wolff says: “There’s no point pretending we’re not talking to Max.” The Merc board is making up its mind now. Merc chair Ola Källenius – get your hand off it. What’s $150m a year to a $270bn-a-year company?

And Yuki Tsunoda’s Red Bull days must be coming to an end. He hit two other racers, received a 10-second penalty for taking Franco Colapinto out, was lapped twice and finished last. There’s a winner right there!

So, what’s going to happen to our own Jack Doohan? Over at Alpine, where he’s number one reserve driver, things are murkier. Flavio Briatore is back and already sniffing around Valtteri Bottas to replace Franco Colapinto – despite the latter being only five races into his stint.

Jack is due back in the Alpine for Sunday’s Silverstone struggle but with Alpine dead last in the championship, Frank on zero points, who knows?

Lotus still exists (barely), Mustang Cup arrives, and Ricciardo rides scooters

More on this next week but Australia will get a Mustang Cup next year. The Mustang Dark Horse R is a track-only factory race car offering performance and durability straight out of the box. This is the one Australia’s Cam McLeod used to win the challenge races supporting the 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans.

In the midst of F1 madness, Lotus is battling its own crisis. Reports swirled that the Hethel plant – home to Lotus for nearly 60 years – was on the chopping block. Not true, says Lotus. But the plant has been idle since May, production numbers are down, and its China-built electric SUVs (Eletre and Emeya) are struggling to sell thanks to US tariffs and lukewarm reception.

Lotus had ambitions to sell 150,000 cars by 2028. So far in 2025, it’s moved fewer than 800.

And happy birthday Dan. Last week he became middle-aged (36). Since bowing out in Singapore last year, he’s been back at kart tracks helping juniors and remembering what it was like to just have fun behind the wheel.

[e-mail]