Australian race-car pilot, the first driver in history to be knighted, in 1979, for his services to motorsport. Sir Jack Brabham remains one of racing’s most popular personalities, a triple world champion (1959, 1960 and 1966) whose name is synonymous with Grand Prix motor racing. He is the only Formula One driver to have won a world title in a car of his own construction – the BT19 – which he drove to victory in 1966. The following year the Brabham team won its second successive world championship when New Zealander Denny Hulme drove the BT20 to victory. Brabham was named Australian of the Year 1966.
A second-generation Aussie, Jack’s Cockney granddad came from east London. His dad owned a grocery store just outside of Sydney and was a keen motorist who taught his son to drive a car at age 12. At 15, Jack left school and got a job in a local garage while spending his evenings studying engineering at Kogarah Tech.
After two years duty in the Air Force as a mechanic on Beaufighters based in Australia, Jack opened a small repair business in 1948. Meeting a pilot of midget cars, he remodeled a vehicle for racing but when it was not picked up, he took it on himself to debut at Paramatta Park Speedway. With no prior experience, he won the New South Wales Championship his first season and in the years that followed became one of the stars of the midget racing scene in Australia until his original engine blew up. He also met Ron Tauranac at that time with whom he had a partnership that would continue into Formula One and Europe. He and Tauranac began their relationship by hill climbing together, then in 1951 moved into road racing.
With a Cooper-Bristol which had been shipped out from Europe, his driving style matured dramatically and, in 1955, he moved from Australia to Europe to drive for Charles and John Cooper where he won his first two titles. He drove a Cooper in Indianapolis-500, finishing ninth and qualifying the first modern mid-engine car which led to the demise of the classic Indy roadsters. In 1961, Jack and Tauranac established Motor Racing Developments Ltd and began building a Formula Junior car in a shed in Esher. The project was kept secret as Brabham was still a Cooper driver.
At the end of the year he left Cooper and the Brabham company moved into new workshops in Surbiton and began to design a Formula 1 car. Jack bought a Lotus with which to start the 1962 season and in July 1962, the Brabham BT3 appeared at the German GP. Cars for
other championships followed but success in F1 did not come until 1964 when Brabham driver Dan Gurney won the team’s first Grand Prix at Rouen. Jack himself did not win a race in one of his own cars until 1966. A new engine formula was introduced that year and in preparation for that Jack convinced the Repco company in Australia to build an engine for his team, based on an aluminum Oldsmobile V8. This proved to be the most effective engine of 1966 and 1967 and enabled Brabham to win his third Drivers’ Championship and the team’s first Constructors’ title. In 1966 he was created an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for his services to motor racing.
His aggressive style contributed to a broken ankle during a test crash in 1969. In 1970, his final Grand Prix win in South Africa signaled the end of his racing career at age 44. He sold his interest in the team to his partner, Ron Tauranac, and returned to his native Australia, keeping contact with the motor racing world in associated venues. Besides maintaining his garage business he still made appearances at the various vintage races that seem to be springing up everywhere. All three of his sons, Geoff, Gary and David have carried on professional racing careers.
Link to Wikipedia biography