Jack Brabham obit

Sir Jack Brabham, ex-F1 champion, dies aged 88

 

He was not on the list.

Three-time Formula 1 world champion Sir Jack Brabham, who won the title in a car he built himself, has died aged 88.

The Australian driver, who was knighted in 1979, won the championship in 1959, 1960 and 1966.

His son, David, confirmed that he had died at his home on Australia's Gold Coast after a long battle with liver disease.

"He lived an incredible life, achieving more than anyone would ever dream of," said David Brabham.

"He will continue to live on through the astounding legacy he leaves behind."

Sir Jack began racing in Australia in 1948 after serving in the Royal Australian Air Force as a mechanic.

After a number of successful years racing in New Zealand and Australia, he came to the UK and made his Grand Prix debut in 1955.

His Grand Prix wins ranged from his first in Monaco in 1959 to his last in South Africa in 1970, the year he retired from the sport.

His world championship win in 1966 was achieved in a car of his own construction, the rear-engined BT19.

He remains the only man in history to have designed, built and driven a championship-winning car.

Brabham raced on into his 40s, recording his last of his 14 F1 victories at the age of 43 in the 1970 South African Grand Prix.

After his retirement, he sold his his team to Bernie Ecclestone - who would go on to run the sport - with the Brabham name remaining in the sport until the 1990s.

He was knighted for services to motor sport in 1979.

"Australia has lost a legend," said Tony Abbott, Australia's Prime Minister.

"With his pioneering spirit, Sir Jack Brabham personified many great Australian characteristics. "He was respected and admired for his spirit, and for his great skill as an engineer."

Brabham is survived by his wife, Lady Margaret, and sons Geoff, Gary and David and their families.

He was an Australian racing driver and motorsport executive, who competed in Formula One from 1955 to 1970. Brabham won three Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles, which he won in 1959, 1960 and 1966, and won 14 Grands Prix across 16 seasons. He co-founded Brabham in 1960, leading the team to two World Constructors' Championship titles, and remains the only driver to have won the World Drivers' Championship in an eponymous car.

Brabham was a Royal Australian Air Force flight mechanic and ran a small engineering workshop before he started racing midget cars in 1948. His successes with midgets in Australian and New Zealand road racing events led to his going to Britain to further his racing career. There he became part of the Cooper Car Company's racing team, building as well as racing cars. He contributed to the design of the mid-engined cars that Cooper introduced to Formula One and the Indianapolis 500, and won the Formula One world championship in 1959 and 1960. In 1962 he established his own Brabham marque with fellow Australian Ron Tauranac, which in the 1960s became the largest manufacturer of custom racing cars in the world. In the 1966 Formula One season Brabham became the only man to win the Formula One world championship driving one of his own cars. At the time of his death, he was the last surviving World Champion of the 1950s.

Brabham retired to Australia after the 1970 Formula One season, where he bought a farm and maintained business interests, which included the Engine Developments racing engine manufacturer and several garages.

Brabham started racing after an American friend, Johnny Schonberg, persuaded him to watch a midget car race. Midget racing was a category for small open-wheel cars racing on dirt ovals. It was popular in Australia, attracting crowds of up to 40,000. Brabham records that he was not taken with the idea of driving, being convinced that the drivers "were all lunatics" but he agreed to build a car with Schonberg.

At first Schonberg drove the homemade device, powered by a modified JAP motorcycle engine built by Brabham in his workshop. In 1948, Schonberg's wife persuaded him to stop racing and on his suggestion Brabham took over. He almost immediately found that he had a knack for the sport, winning on his third night's racing. From there he was a regular competitor and winner in Midgets (known as Speedcars in Australia) at tracks such Sydney's Cumberland Speedway, the Sydney Showground, and the Sydney Sports Ground, as well as interstate tracks such as Adelaide's Kilburn and Rowley Park speedways and the Ekka in Brisbane. Brabham has since said that it was "terrific driver training. You had to have quick reflexes: in effect you lived—or possibly died—on them." Due to the time required to prepare the car, the sport also became his living. Brabham won the 1948 Australian Speedcar Championship, the 1949 Australian and South Australian Speedcar championships, and the 1950–1951 Australian championship with the car.

After successfully running the midget at some hillclimbing events in 1951, Brabham became interested in road racing. He bought and modified a series of racing cars from the Cooper Car Company, a British constructor, and from 1953 concentrated on this form of racing, in which drivers compete on closed tarmac circuits. He was supported by his father and by the Redex fuel additive company, although his commercially aware approach—including the title RedeX Special painted on the side of his Cooper-Bristol—did not go down well with the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS), which banned the advertisement. Brabham competed in Australia and New Zealand until early 1955, taking "a long succession of victories", including the 1953 Queensland Road Racing championship. During this time, he picked up the nickname "Black Jack", which has been variously attributed to his dark hair and stubble, to his "ruthless" approach on the track, and to his "propensity for maintaining a shadowy silence". After the 1954 New Zealand Grand Prix, Brabham was persuaded by Dean Delamont, competitions manager of the Royal Automobile Club in the United Kingdom, to try a season of racing in Europe, then the international centre of road racing.

Actor

James Garner, Toshirô Mifune, Eva Marie Saint, Antonio Sabato, Françoise Hardy, and Yves Montand in Grand Prix (1966)

Grand Prix

7.2

Grand Prix driver (uncredited)

1966

 

Roger Moore in The Saint (1962)

The Saint

7.5

TV Series

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1965

1 episode

 

After Hours

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1959

1 episode

 

Transportation Department

James Garner, Toshirô Mifune, Eva Marie Saint, Antonio Sabato, Françoise Hardy, and Yves Montand in Grand Prix (1966)

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7.2

racing driver

1966

 

Additional Crew

Formula 1 (1950)

Formula 1

9.4

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1961–1970

103 episodes

 

Self

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2019

 

McLaren (2017)

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2017

 

Racing Through Time - Jack Brabham

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2013

 

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2012

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Formula 1's 60th Anniversary: Plus Ça Change (2011)

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2011

 

Formula 1: BBC Sport (2009)

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8.5

TV Series

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2010

1 episode

 

Flat Out: Formula One in the Sixties

7.8

Video

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2006

 

James Garner in Pushing the Limit: The Making of 'Grand Prix' (2006)

Pushing the Limit: The Making of 'Grand Prix'

6.9

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2006

 

Victor Harbor: South Australia's Coastal Playground on the Fleurieu Peninsula

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2005

 

Monaco, le circuit des princes

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Self (as Sir Jack Brabham)

2004

 

Documentary New Zealand: Trio at the Top

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(as Sir Jack Brabham)

2001

 

The History of Honda Challenges for 50 Years

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1999

 

Michael Aspel in This Is Your Life (1955)

This Is Your Life

6.5

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Self

1992

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The Power and the Glory (1991)

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9.1

TV Series

Self

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1991

2 episodes

 

An Aussie at Indy (1982)

An Aussie at Indy

TV Special

Self

1982

 

Susan Oliver in The American Sportsman (1965)

The American Sportsman

8.1

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Self - Driver #3

1979

1 episode

 

Mike Willesee and Pro Hart in This Is Your Life (1975)

This Is Your Life

6.2

TV Series

Self

1976

1 episode

 

Formula 1 (1950)

Formula 1

9.4

TV Series

Self

1955–1970

127 episodes

 

Motorama (1965)

Motorama

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Self

1970

1 episode

 

Die Rennfahrer

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Self

1970

 

The Ringmasters

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Self

1967

 

Formula 2

TV Series

Self

1960–1967

3 episodes

 

James Garner, Eva Marie Saint, Antonio Sabato, Françoise Hardy, Yves Montand, and Jessica Walter in Grand Prix: Challenge of the Champions (1966)

Grand Prix: Challenge of the Champions

6.5

Short

Self

1966

 

The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (1966)

The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

TV Movie

Self

1966

 

The Australian Londoners (1965)

The Australian Londoners

TV Movie

Self

1965

 

Dickie Henderson and June Laverick in The Dickie Henderson Show (1960)

The Dickie Henderson Show

6.9

TV Series

Self

1963

1 episode

 

Chan Canasta (1962)

Chan Canasta

TV Series

Self - Guest

1962

1 episode

 

The 1961 Belgian Grand Prix

Short

Self

1961

 

Bill Travers and Nancy Walters in The Green Helmet (1961)

The Green Helmet

5.4

Self

1961

 

The Children's Television Caravan

TV Series

Self

1959

1 episode

 

Grand Prix D'Europe

Short

Self

1958

 

Archive Footage

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Back Roads

7.4

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2022

1 episode

 

Zeit.geschichte (2011)

Zeit.geschichte

7.2

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Self (archive footage)

2017

1 episode

 

Formula 1: BBC Sport (2009)

Formula 1: BBC Sport

8.5

TV Series

Self (archive footage, as Sir Jack Brabham)

2014

1 episode

 

Sunrise (2000)

Sunrise

2.9

TV Series

Self (archive footage)

2014

1 episode

 

AM Agenda (2008)

AM Agenda

TV Series

Self (archive footage)

2014

1 episode

 

Britain on Film (2012)

Britain on Film

8.7

TV Series

Self (archive footage)

2013

1 episode

 

Die Legenden von Aspern

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Self (archive footage)

2010

 

Newsreel Nostalgia: Australian News and Events on Film 1908-1975 (1992)

Newsreel Nostalgia: Australian News and Events on Film 1908-1975

Video

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1992