Sir Jack Brabham: Champion driver who won first title by pushing car over finish line
SIR Jack Brabham, who has died at the age of 88, was threetime Formula One world champion driver and two-time world champion constructor, becoming the first driver to win the title in a car of his own making.
Like Juan Fangio (five times a world champion driver), “Black Jack” Brabham proved that the prerequisites of the racing star — quick judgment, lightning reflexes, exuberance and dash — are not exclusive to youth. He was almost 30 when he started to race Formula One cars and in his 34th year when, in 1959, he won his first championship.
At the US Grand Prix that year, he became the first Australian to win the Formula 1 title, pushing his out-of-fuel car uphill to the finishing line, collapsing in exhaustion after doing so. His effort meant that he ended fourth and secured sufficient points to win the championship. This was the first championship success for a rear-engined Formula One car, ending the reign of the traditional frontengined design.
He retained the title in 1960 and added a third in 1966, guiding a Brabham car he designed and built with compatriot Ron Tauranac to the crown at the age of 40. In 1967, his Brabham marque again won the construc- tors’ championship, but the driver’s title went to Brabham’s teammate, Denny Hulme, with Brabham in second place after two Grand Prix wins.
In 1970, when he was 43, he won the South African Grand Prix in his final season.
His success was the reward for perseverance rather than the outcome of genius. He added uncommon engineering gifts to a flair for driving and strategy (he was regarded for many years as the most wily man in motor racing).
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.
John Arthur Brabham was born on April 2 1926 in Hurstville, near Sydney, the grandson of an English immigrant from London’s East End. Brabham’s father taught his son to drive at the age of 12. He left school at 15 and got a job in a local garage, spending his evenings studying engineering at Hurstville Technical College.
After serving from 1944 to 1946 in the Royal Australian Air Force as an engineer, Brabham opened a small motor repair and machine shop. Through this, he became acquainted with Johnny Schonberg, an American who raced midget cars on dirt tracks. Brabham built a car for Schonberg, but after the latter’s wife induced him to quit racing, it was left to Brabham to try his hand. He won three races on his debut evening. He turned to road racing in 1952 with great success, but fell foul of the Australian authorities by painting advertising on his car.
Brabham made his Formula One debut at the British Grand Prix in 1955. He won his first three world championship points in 1958 and at the start of the 1959 season won the Monaco Grand Prix in a “works” Cooper car, setting a course record.
He followed this with a second place in the Netherlands, a third in France and Italy, victory in the British Grand Prix and that dramatic fourth place in the US. He was knighted in 1979. Black Jack’s proudest moment came in 1989 when all three his sons — Geoff, Gary and David — won championship titles in different categories. — ©