Sir Jack Brabham Biography

Jack Brabham is one of the most accomplished - and colourful - racing drivers in the history of motorsport. The winner of three Formula One World Championships, the only driver to be crowned champion in a car of his own construction and the first F1 driver to be awarded a knighthood, Sir Jack can be rightly described as one of the true legends of the sport.

In addition to his F1 success, he won in countless other categories, claiming four European Formula Two championships between 1957 and 1966 and the British Saloon Car Championship in 1965. All were thanks to his rare combination of skills behind the wheel and in the workshop.

Born on 2nd April 1926, in the Australian town of Hurstville, John Arthur Brabham grew up driving and maintaining his greengrocer father's delivery vehicles. After a brief career in engineering, he joined the Australian Air Force, honing his abilities as a flight mechanic, before setting up his own engineering works in Sydney. He was later to become an accomplished pilot himself.

Jack's initial involvement in the world of racing came via a friend with whom he helped to build a midget racer for use on dirt ovals. He soon took over the driving and went on to win four successive Australian championships between 1948 and 1951, also adding the 1953 hillclimb crown - using a British-built Cooper-Bristol - for good measure.

In 1955, Jack moved to England and teamed up with John and Charles Cooper, who had built the car he had used successfully in Australia, to make his Grand Prix debut at Aintree.

Although he retired first time out, it proved to be a winning combination. Innovative thinking on rear-engined designs, together with Jack's considerable engineering and development skills, led to the ground-breaking British cars recording victories against the larger Italian and German teams, who still favoured front-engined vehicles.

Brabham's leadership of the Cooper team from 1958 onwards also proved decisive, and he recorded victories in Monaco and Britain, plus three other podium finishes, en route to his first F1 world title in 1959.

His consistent finishing record culminated in a dramatic season finale at Sebring in America, when Jack literally pushed his Cooper-Climax over the line to claim fourth place and become the first Australian world champion.

His success was also enough to convince the world that the rear-engined car was the way forward, and the design quickly became the universal layout for formula racing cars throughout the world.

Although he possessed a somewhat taciturn personality - one of the reasons for the nickname 'Black Jack' - Brabham let his racing do the talking, displaying a forceful and highly competitive driving style on track. That led to an even more conclusive F1 championship triumph in 1960, where he took five consecutive victories in Holland, Belgium, France, Britain and Portugal to overcome non-scoring appearances in the first two races.

After two years of success, the 1961 season proved to be something of an anti-climax, as the Ferrari team dominated in the year that F1 switched to a smaller one-and-a-half litre engine formula. At that point, Brabham amicably parted company with Cooper, setting up Motor Racing Developments Ltd with Australian designer and old friend Ron Tauranac.

The resultant MRD Brabham cars proved a major success, particularly in F2 and F3, but Jack was also hard at work developing his own F1 car, making improvements to the BT3 chassis and Climax engine that appeared in mid-1962. Although he didn't win a race, he captured a podium with the BT7 in 1963, before American team-mate Dan Gurney finally took breakthrough victories in France and Mexico in 1964.

The ensuing BT11 took five successive podium finishes in 1965, with Brabham joining Gurney in the top three in the USA, before 1966 presented new challenges with the advent of the three-litre formula.

Brabham responded to the rule change by producing an F1 engine with Australian automotive components company Repco. Basing the BT19 design around an Oldsmobile V8-derived powerplant, there was instant success, as Jack took four back-to-back wins to claim his third F1 crown. He also added the annual International Trophy and Gold Cup F1 races to his haul, as well as no fewer than ten wins in F2, even though there was no title to be had that year.

Brabham also proved that there was a humorous side to 'Black Jack' as he appeared at that year's Dutch Grand Prix grid, at the ripe old age of 40, jokingly limping onto the track sporting a long false beard and cane. Despite his 'appearance', Brabham certainly showed no rustiness in his racing and won the Grand Prix - a feat he repeated in France, Britain and on Germany's notorious Nurburgring.

The 1966 title success earned Jack a further place in motorsport history by becoming the first - and so far only - driver to secure the F1 championship in a car of his own creation. It is a feat unlikely to be repeated.

Two wins with the BT24 contributed to Brabham coming close to a fourth title in 1967, when he finished second to team-mate Denny Hulme, before the Repco relationship fizzled out after a disappointing 1968 campaign.

Switching to Cosworth power the following season provided mixed results, culminating in two podium finishes in the final three races, but Jack was back on top in the opening round of 1970 when, at the age of 44, he dominated the South African Grand Prix.

He missed out on further success in Monaco and Britain, when he twice suffered last lap heartache, and, having achieved tenth in the championship, decided to retire. He sold his team to Tauranac - who then sold it on to Bernie Ecclestone a year later.

As well as his on-track innovations, Brabham was also one of the first F1 drivers to pilot his own plane. Team-mates such as Gurney, Hulme, Bruce McLaren, Jochen Rindt and Jacky Ickx were passengers of his, with many a tale to tell as a result.

Each, of course, also benefited from Jack's skills as a tutor in the art of F1 racing and unfailingly spoke of him with a mix of admiration and gratitude.

In 1979, Jack was awarded a knighthood in recognition of his distinguished services to British motorsport, having already been awarded an OBE in 1967.

Returning to his native land upon retirement, he developed a whole range of new interests, among them a farm, car dealership and aviation company, but Jack remained embroiled in the sport and even continued to race touring cars in Australia for many years.

Until recently, Jack was a familiar face in the F1 paddocks around the world. With a relationship with Honda dating back to 1964, he continued as an adviser to Honda Racing and remains an ambassador for the marque to this present day.

Unsurprisingly, Jack has whole-heartedly supported the burgeoning careers of each of his sons, Geoffrey, Gary and David, from the very start. Even today, despite his advancing years, he takes a keen interest in both contemporary F1 and the careers of his grandchildren... the next generation of Brabhams successfully embarking on promising motor racing careers.