Brabham’s success was the reward for dogged perseverance rather than the
outcome — as in the cases of Stirling Moss, Jim Clark and Mike Hawthorn — of
irrepressible genius. But to an innate flair for driving and for strategy
(he was regarded for many years as the most wily man in motor racing) he
added uncommon gifts in engineering.
Jack Brabham in 1958: uncommon gifts in engineering
John Cooper, in whose team Brabham raced for six years, described him as a
brilliant engineer who drove with his head and never exceeded the normal
capabilities of the car. “You don’t tell Brabham what tactics to adopt,”
said Cooper. “You simply keep him informed, during the race, of the general
picture, and leave it to him to act as he sees fit.”
John Arthur Brabham, always known as Jack, was born on April 2 1926 at
Hurstville, near Sydney, the grandson of an English immigrant from London’s
East End. Jack’s father, who owned a grocery store and wholesale business,
was a keen motorist and taught his son to drive at the age of 12. Jack left
school at 15 and got a job in a local garage, while spending his evenings
studying engineering at Hurstville Technical College.
After serving from 1944 to 1946 in the Royal Australian Airforce, as an
engineer on Beaufighters, Brabham opened a small motor repair and machine
shop. Through this, he soon became acquainted with Johnny Schonberg, an
expatriate American who raced midget cars on dirt tracks. Brabham built a
new car for Schonberg; but after Schonberg’s wife induced him to quit
racing, it was left to Brabham to try his hand. After some sketchy
instruction on Tempe mud and some races at Paramatta Park Speedway, he burst
onto the scene at Sydney Showgrounds, winning three races on his debut
evening.
In his first season in 1947 he won the New South Wales Championship. During
this time he formed a partnership with the design engineer Ron Tauranac
(later of Ralt Racing) that would continue into Formula One.
Brabham turned to road racing in 1952 with great success, but fell foul of the
Australian authorities by painting advertising on his car. He raced in New
Zealand early in 1955, where Dean Delamont, a visitor from the British RAC,
urged him to race in Britain.
Brabham (centre) with John Cooper (right) at the 1960 Argentine Grand
Prix, where Bruce McLaren (left) placed first
Brabham duly made his Formula One debut at the British Grand Prix in 1955 at
Aintree, driving a Cooper that he had built himself, before returning home
where he won the Australian Grand Prix. The next season, he was signed by
John Cooper for his Cooper Car Company team.
Over the next few years, Brabham shone in minor formula races while gradually
gaining experience in Formula One. He won his first three World Championship
points in 1958, and then at the start of the 1959 season won the Monaco
Grand Prix in a “works” Cooper car, setting a new course record. He followed
this with a second place in Holland, a third in France and Italy, and
victory in the British Grand Prix.
He won the drivers’ World Championship that year with 34 points, the last of
which were gained at Sebring, Florida, where he pushed his car (after it ran
out of fuel) 500 yards to cross the finishing line in fourth place. As he
crossed the line, he collapsed from exhaustion, deaf to the cheers of the
crowd. This was the first championship success for a rear-engined Formula
One car, ending the reign of the traditional front-engined design.
In 1960 Brabham repeated the triumph in a new lowline model, winning five
Grands Prix in a row to end the season champion, with 43 points. His win in
the French Grand Prix was so fast — 131.79mph — that it beat all
calculations of the organisers and raised the question as to whether the
race could, after all, be accepted as qualifying in the world championship
series. The regulations stipulated a minimum distance of 300 miles or a
minimum time of two hours. Brabham completed the 50 laps of the 5·2 miles
course in one hour 57 minutes 24.7 seconds.
The next year he returned to earth, managing just four championship points
from eight Grands Prix starts. Finding Cooper’s technology overtaken by such
makes as Lotus and BRM, he then decided to strike out on his own in
partnership with Ron Tauranac to develop his own marque.
His Brabham BT-3 made its debut in the German Grand Prix of 1962, but had
limited success. Formula One cars were now subject to a 1500cc engine
capacity limit, and the new restriction proved unsuited to the aggressive
driving style of Brabham — who never won a Formula One Grand Prix during the
1500cc era — while seeming tailor-made for Jim Clark, who won the
championship in 1963 and 1965. It was left to Dan Gurney to win the first
Grand Prix — at Rouen in France — for the Brabham team in 1964.
Brabham, a lifelong aviation enthusiast, had long-since learned to fly to
minimise travelling time between racing venues and to spend more time with
the group of companies he was building up. These not only built the Formula
One cars for him to drive, but also produced a range of racing cars for
customer sale, which thrived in Formula Two, Three, Junior and sportscar
racing from 1962 to 1969. During this time, Brabham introduced Honda to
four-wheeled motorsport: Honda engines powered the hugely-successful Brabham
Formula Two chassis in 1966.
For the 1966 Formula One season, engine size was raised to three litres, and
Brabham raced his new Brabham-Repco BT19, with an engine developed by the
Australian company Repco. Relishing the increased power, Brabham drove to
victory in the French, British, Dutch and German Grands Prix, and won the
drivers’ championship with 45 points. He also won the constructors’ title.
In 1967 his Brabham marque again won the constructors’ championship, but the
drivers’ title went to Brabham’s team-mate Denny Hulme, with Brabham in
second place after two Grand Prix wins. After less successful seasons in
1968 and 1969, Brabham came under intense family pressure to retire.
But finding all the top drivers unavailable, he decided to continue driving
for 1970. Rather than going through the motions he won the season opener at
the South African Grand Prix and led the Monaco Grand Prix until the final
corner of the last lap while under pressure of the onrushing Jochen Rindt.
The Mexican Grand Prix would be his last race.
After retiring from driving at the age of 44, Brabham sold his interest in the
team to his partner Ron Tauranac and returned to Australia. Tauranac went on
to sell it to Bernie Ecclestone in the 1970s. Later in his life Brabham
would regret making such a clean break from Formula One.
He eventually returned to Britain, where he had long maintained a Vauxhall
dealership at Chessington (with his 1966 championship-winning car parked in
the showroom). He made regular appearances at vintage race events. At one,
at Goodwood in 1999, he suffered a heavy crash, which briefly put him in
hospital. He continued to drive until 2004.
Jack Brabham behind the wheel of a McLaren M5A BRM just before the start
of the Goodwood race in which his car crashed heavily into the barriers, 1999
He published Jack Brabham’s Book of Racing (1960), When the Flag Drops (1971)
and The Jack Brabham Story (2004).
He was appointed OBE in 1966 and knighted in 1979.
Jack Brabham was married to his first wife, the former Betty Evelyn Beresford,
for more than four decades. They divorced in 1994 and the following year he
married, secondly, Margaret Taylor. His three sons from his first marriage –
Geoff, Gary and David – have all enjoyed successful motor racing careers;
Black Jack’s proudest moment came in 1989, when all three won championship
titles in different categories.
Sir Jack Brabham, born April 2 1926, died May 19 2014