Australian motorsport legend Kevin Bartlett is set to appear that the Historic Leyburn Sprints in August.

This year’s event is set to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Australian Grand Prix, an event Bartlett competed in during the 1960s and 1970s.

The 79-year-old Bartlett will join his 1982 Bathurst co-driver Colin Bond, 1981 Bathurst winner John French, among a host of others at the event.

Sprints President Tricia Chant said Kevin Bartlett would be a big attraction at this year’s event.

“Kevin is a true legend of Australian motor racing, as a talented and tough competitor on track and a popular personality out of the car,” said Tricia Chant, Sprints President.

“That popularity has never waned and I’m sure many people will come to the Sprints just for the chance to meet him.”

Bartlett began racing in the late 1950s and went on to win Australian Drivers’ Championships in 1968 and 1969, the 1974 Bathurst 1000 and set the first 100 mile-an-hour (160 kmh) Bathurst lap in a Repco Brabham in 1967.

He’s also remembered for racing a Chevrolet Camaro Z28 in the early 1980s, rolling the car at Bathurst in 1982.

Bartlett, among with the event’s other guests, will be present throughout the Sprints weekend to help celebrate the 1949 Australian Grand Prix, which was staged on an ex-wartime airfield just outside the tiny town.

This year’s event runs across the August 17-18 weekend.