DAN GURNEY

It didn’t take long for Gurney to become

Brabham’s team leader in terms of on-track performance when he joined Brabham in 1963, no mean feat given his team-mate was boss and then-two-time champion Jack Brabham.

Jim Clark and the Lotus 25 left slim pickings for others, winning seven of the 10 rounds, but Gurney was one of the leaders of the chasing pack and finished fifth in the championship.

He was even more impressive in 1964. Gurney took Brabham’s first pole at Zandvoort, then topped the timesheets next time out at Spa.

He was heading for victory when the BT7 ran out of fuel on the final lap, Gurney classified sixth.

His luck changed two weeks later, inheriting the lead at Rouen when Clark’s Lotus suffered engine failure. He went on to take Brabham’s first world championship GP victory, with Jack in third.

Elsewhere, Gurney’s luck and the car’s reliability

were appalling. His only other decent result came in the Mexican GP finale, Gurney inheriting victory when Clark’s Lotus again failed him late on. His two wins left Gurney sixth in the table once again but really his own performances should have put him in the title fight with Clark, Graham Hill and eventual champion John Surtees.

Clark and Lotus were again out of reach in 1965 and BRM was strong with Hill and star rookie Jackie Stewart. There were no wins or poles, but better reliability helped Gurney to fourth in the standings – and he famously pushed Clark into a rare error in the Race of Champions at Brands Hatch.

With Gurney leading the team, Jack Brabham was considering retiring at the end of 1965. But Gurney instead went off to set up his own Eagle project, thereby giving up the chance to drive the Brabhams that would win the next two world championships…