SYDNEY, May 2 (Xinhua) --
Sydney is gearing up for a
showcase of six decades of motorsport
history in celebration of the
Australian motor sports connection with
Macao, the home of Asia's motor
racing.
From May 23-26, Sydney
will host a free exhibition - Macao
Grand Prix: 60 years of Motorsport
History - for the sports-mad public,
focusing on the upcoming Diamond
Jubilee of the globally famous
event.
The Lower Exhibitions
Hall at Sydney Town Hall, the
venue for this 60th Anniversary expo,
will be decorated with a series
of historic photographs, video coverage
of Macao Grand Prix meetings and
historic posters from the
past.
Tourism information of
Macao, including maps, guidebooks and
details on the various attractions
will be handed out during the
four-day event, reflecting the former
colony's grip on the Australian
imagination.
In Sydney, previous
Aussie winner Kevin Bartlett will
launch the 60th Anniversary Macao Grand
Exhibition at an invitation-only presentation
on the evening of May
22.
"My recollections of Macao
in the 60s are among my most
treasured and favorite parts of my
racing career...Up until that time
my travel had been confined to
the Southern Hemisphere and to arrive
on a local liner (the Fat San)
into a different way of doing
things," Motor racing legend Bartlett
told Xinhua.
"The race car
was unloaded by many hands from
the hold of the ship and placed
dockside ready to be taken to
the garage area, which was the
local naval fleet work station,"
recalled Bartlett.
"The incessant
chatter of strange tongues as orders
were given to get the job done
safely worried us at first but
the crews turned out to be very
efficient."
Bartlett, also known
by his nickname "KB", took out
the Macao Grand Prix in 1969 behind
the wheel of a Mildren-Waggott in
Formula Libre, the same year he
was crowned CAMS Gold Star in
Australia for the second successive
year.
For consecutive years,
Bartlett took out the Australian
Drivers Championship and later teamed
up with John Goss to win the
arduous Bathurst 1000 in 1973. He was
named in Wheels magazine's annual
yearbook in 2004 as one of
Australia's 50 greatest racing drivers,
placed number 15.
Bartlett's
victory at Macao was the first
international Grand Prix victory for
the popular Australian driver.
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