Fred Opert

On the subject of Brabhams, in the ’60s an enthusiastic New Jersey native became the US agent for the most effective production racing cars in the world. Fred Opert soon gave up driving to dedicate himself to his business, which extended to Chevron in the ’70s. He brought Keke Rosberg to New Zealand and, with the preparation expertise of Kiwi Dick Bennetts, won back-to-back Formula Pacific titles near the end of that decade. Melbourne-based Kiwi Peter Hill has written a book on the colourful life of Opert, and Rosberg, appropriately, provided the foreword. It is available from the author at peter.r.hill@bigpond.com.

“Fred and I experienced so much together. Through him I got to know so many wonderful people around the world.

I raced for him literally all over the world, from our wonderful early times together in New Zealand, which were the best times in motor sport for Fred and me, through Europe, USA, Canada, Macao, and Japan. They were exhausting but exciting times as we spent more time on airplanes than on the ground. I have a deep feeling of gratefulness as I knew there were times when he really couldn’t afford to run me in his cars. However, he somehow always found a way to pay the bills!

He also was the best travel agent on earth — during the era with no online booking, no internet, or even fax!

Fred was a colourful character and one of the best connected people in international single seater motor sport. His love for racing, adventures and misadventures make great reading. In his late years he also became the most devoted fan of my son Nico in Formula 1.”