The veteran Australian touring car and open wheeler racer is the latest motorsport legend of the past to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Leyburn Australian Grand Prix.
O’Brien will other motor sport luminaries Warwick Brown, John Bowe and Bruce Allison, Bowe’s long-time team leader Dick Johnson and motorsport identities Ron Harrop and Brian Gelding.
They will be part the Sprints official opening and 75th commemoration ceremony on Saturday August 17 and attend other activities which include fan meet-and-greet sessions.
“Charlie O’Brien has had an amazing career and will be well remembered by many motorsport fans attending the Sprints,” said Sprints President Tricia Chant.
“He’s done everything from racing in the Australian Grand Prix to touring cars, sports cars and even NASCAR. We’re grateful he has been able to join us for what will be an historic weekend at Leyburn in more than the usual sense and know he’ll be welcomed enthusiastically by the Sprints patrons.”
He contested the Australian Grand Prix in 1981, 1982 and 1983, and spent a great deal of his long career in touring car with stints at the Holden Dealer Team, Dick Johnson Racing and Allan Moffat Racing
O’Brien competed in the Australian Touring Car Championship in 1976 and drove a Holden Torana SLR5000. At Amaroo Park, then aged 21, he became the youngest winner in touring car records, which he held until 2003.
In a Ralt RT4, he won the 1982 National Panasonic Series and took out the 1987 New Zealand National Touring Car Series in his own BMW 635CSi.
He also drove in Super Touring, Porsche Carrera Cup, V8 Utes, GT3, Touring Car Masters, GT Production and Australian NASCAR.
The Sprints begins at 8:00am on Saturday and Sunday. Adult tickets are available on-line or at the gate for $25 a day or $35 for the weekend, with children under 14 free. On-street parking is free.
The event is staging a raffle to win a Bathurst 1000 weekend for two, valued at more than $11,000 or five $500 Supercheap Auto vouchers. Tickets can be purchased on the website.
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