DX Industries announce Longford Grand Prix Expo to showcase Tasmania's finest collector cars

Building on the success of Longford's Motorama, DX Industries is set to collaborate with both the state government and the Northern Midlands council to hold the inaugural Longford Grand Prix Expo in March.

The award-winning circuit design and motorsport development company's chief executive Jeremy Dickson appeared at Entally Estate in Hadspen on Saturday.

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He explained the expo would include a selection of Tasmania's and Australia's finest privately held collector-grade cars and bikes.

"The event will feature a fully immersive adventure into motor vehicles and mobility, coupled with a range of educational, family-friendly, and first-class hospitality activities," he said.

"The vision is to create an internationally recognised event that will become a marquee visitor experience on the Tasmanian events calendar."

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Hospitality and events minister Nic Street also appeared at the event launch and revealed the state government had contributed $450,000 to next year's expo which had been estimated to bring in 20,000 punters across two days.

He said once the event had concluded, a review of its success would be undertaken before any further state government funding was allocated to the organisers.

"We hope this event will drive intrastate and interstate visitation both to Longford and to other areas of Tasmania," he said.

"We want the rest of Australia to understand just how important Longford is in Australia's motorsport history."

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Northern Midlands mayor Mary Knowles echoed a similar sentiment by emphasising the historical importance the Longford Grand Prix - which was held in the agricultural town between - 1953 and 1969 - had for residents.

"This expo will bring back the excitement of the old days, while also bringing vitality to the town," she said.

"This has taken years of planning, and the previous Motorama events have shown just how positive this could be for the town, particularly when taking into account how much the predicted influx of visitors would support local businesses here."

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One significant local who experienced the thrill of the event in person is media personality and author, Neil Kearney, who hosted Saturday's launch, where he labelled the Grand Prix "the biggest sporting event held on Tasmanian soil".

"The excitement for me as a child was palpable, because not a lot really happened in Longford in those days, so about two weeks before the event would take place my classmates and I would run around Longford Primary as fast as we could, pretending we were car racing," he said.

"Finally Friday - which was the practice day - would roll around and the drivers would start their cars just after lunchtime ... the teachers would always try and keep us in class as long as they could, but we'd start to hear the roar of the engines getting louder and louder, and the windows would start to rattle, until eventually it would hit about two o'clock and the teachers said 'ah bugger it, go on then' and the kids would just rush out of the school."

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