Geoff Brabham today
Geoff and Roseina Brabham have been together since they were teenagers and today live comfortably on the Gold Coast, where their jetskis are moored out the back on a canal, but spend eight months of the year in Indianapolis.
Since 2012 they have been supporting Matthew’s racing career in the US, where he won two junior formula car titles as part of the ‘Road to Indy’ ladder system, before tackling Indy Lights in the hope of making to step up to Indycars. Although Aussie Brett Murray ran him in the Indy 500 in 2016, there isn’t the money for a full-time program, so last year Matt raced Stadium Super Trucks, winning six of the 20 races to beat the likes of Robbie Gordon and Indy winner Arie Luyendyk to the championship.
Geoff, meanwhile, returned to racing in historics. It started when he was asked to hand over a prize for the best-looking Brabham racecar at an event; the winner said he had a spare twin-cam BT35 and asked if Geoff would
like to race it.
“I didn’t know if I wanted to do it, because I hadn’t driven anything for 16 years. The rst time I drove it I had motion sickness, so I sent my wife off to get seasick pills, and I’m thinking, ‘I can’t do this.’ Then the second session I went out and it was like I’d never been away. It was weird. Last year I won the championship and at the moment I’m on a 14race winning streak!
“When I retired, I didn’t have any issues stopping racing at all. I could go off karting with Matt, and I didn’t have any withdrawal whatsoever. Now I’ve started doing it again, I’m really enjoying it, which I didn’t think I would. It’s fun.You run up against some good guys every now and again and it’s full on.”
The competitive juices have also returned for Roseina, who was a champion Jetski racer in the 1990s. Now in her 60s, she’s back racing against the boys and beating them, riding a replica of her old jetski that Geoff put together. Now it’s his turn to be the supportive partner.
Geoff has few health issues from his
19 years of international racing, just a problematic back that has eased in recent years and failing hearing due to exposure to noise. That’s another thing he has in common with his late father, who he shared a car with only once – in a Stud Cola-sponsored and John Gossentered Falcon at Bathurst in 1977.
“I remember saying to Dad, ‘Who’s going to qualify?’ And he said, ‘Oh, whoever’s fastest.’ Then he never let me in the car again! He was so competitive. It didn’t worry me, but it was great to do that race together.”
For something like 70 years the name Brabham has been synonymous with ‘competitive spirit.’ And it looks likely to continue for a while yet.