Kevin Bartlett (racing Driver) - Racing Career

Racing Career

Bartlett first arrived on the Australian racing scene in 1958 when he competed in the Touring Car Scratch Race at Bathurst, driving a 950cc Morris Minor. Over the next few years, Bartlett progressed through the levels of Australian motorsport before his big break came when he was hired to drive for 1960 Australian Grand Prix winner Alec Mildren in the Tasman Series of open wheel racing. Bartlett proved competitive in this series and would become a fixture of Alec Mildren Racing for the next decade racing a long line of open-wheel racing cars and Alfa Romeo touring cars. Bartlett won the 1965 International 6 Hour Touring Car Race for the Mildren team, driving an Alfa Romeo TI Super with Frank Gardner and he also won the 1967 Surfers Paradise Four Hour, driving a similar car with Doug Chivas.

At the 1967 Bathurst Easter meeting, Bartlett became the first driver to ever lap the 6.172km mountain circuit at an average speed of over 100mph driving a 1964 Repco Brabham BT11A Climax.

In 1970, Bartlett traveled to the United States to compete in the USAC Championship (aka Indy Car) series, attempting and failing to qualify for the Indianapolis '500.' Bartlett competed in three other Indy Car races, but failed to finish.

Bartlett was signed on to co-drive with John Goss in the 1973 Bathurst 1000, in a brand-new Ford XA Falcon GT Hardtop. They qualified on pole position for the race and led for over three-and-a-half hours, but crashed out of the race on lap 110. They returned the following year and won the event with Bartlett holding off the Bob Forbes Torana and bringing the Goss Falcon home in the rain. Bartlett's Bathurst-winning drive in 1974 was achieved while he still carried hip and pelvis injuries from a major crash at the Pukekohe round of the Tasman Series nine months earlier.

Bartlett was a fixture of Formula 5000 throughout the 70s with a series of Lolas and briefly a modified Brabham Formula One. As the decade closed and Formula 5000 declined, Bartlett return to touring cars, developing the American Chevrolet Camaro for Australian Group C with the partnership of tellevision network the Nine Network. The car debuted, without Bartlett, at 1979 Bathurst 1000. Bartlett took pole position at Bathurst in 1980 and 1981, and finished second in the 1980 Australian Touring Car Championship, but the car is best remembered when it flipped over after suffering wheel rim failure at Reid Park at the 1982 Bathurst 1000.

Bartlett's autobiography entitled "Big Rev Kev" was published in 1983. In 1985 Bartlett headed Mitsubishi's first attack on the Australian Touring Car Championship, and again was a pioneer in 1987, assisting the Maserati World Touring Car Championship team on their visit to Australia and New Zealand. Bartlett's final drive in racing was the 1990 Tooheys 1000, sharing a Holden Commodore with Russell Ingall and Rohan Onslow, in a car owned by the man he beat to win the 1974 Bathurst 1000, Bob Forbes.

In his retirement Bartlett works part time to maintain the famous Bowden collection of historic racing cars, which includes Bartlett's Chevrolet Camaro.

On 24 October 2000, Bartlett was awarded the Australian Sports Medal for his motor racing achievements.