Career
He first started racing FF1600 cars (Lotus 61) in 1979 before moving into sports prototypes (Group C1, C2 & Group 6). In 1983 Bartlett began to establish his name as a sports car driver in the British Thundersports series and the BRDC Sportscar Championship before moving into the World Championship in 1984 and running his own Group C2 team at Le Mans 24 Hour in 1984, 85 and 86. John Bartlett raced sports prototype cars throughout most of his career, including Lola (T610), Chevron (B62), Bardon (DB1), Tiga, Spice and Porsche 966 (Group C & Group C2) in a career spanning some fourteen years.
He also had a brief foray into the IMSA GT Championship in the United States racing a Spice and at the Snetterton Willhire 24 Hours in 1991 winning class A driving a Ford Sierra RS Cosworth with Dave Mercer.
In his final season in 1993 Bartlett raced the Lola T89 Buick Industry car for the Star Union Team in the German Interserie championship. John Bartlett now Managing Director of Maidstone Scuba School, is a Master Instructor training Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array divers.
In 2010 he completed his first novel Chequered Justice (), published by Book Guild, a legal thriller alternating between the race track and the British justice system. His second novel, Dark Horse (a prequel to Chequered Justice), was released in November 2012 by Amazing Journeys in print () and as a Kindle eBook.
In 2013, Leslie Phillips voiced an unabridged audio book edition of Chequered Justice () along with Nick Ross, the former Crimewatch and Watchdog presenter, who guest voiced one section.