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Famous Like Me > Actor > B > Jack Brabham

Profile of Jack Brabham on Famous Like Me

 
Name: Jack Brabham  
   
Also Know As:
   
Date of Birth: 2nd April 1926
   
Place of Birth: Hurstville, New South Wales, Australia
   
Profession: Actor
 
 
From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia
Jack Brabham's 1961 Cooper-Climax, the car that began the rear-engine revolution at the Indianapolis 500
Jack Brabham
Nationality Australian
Active years 1955 - 1970
Team(s) Cooper, Rob Walker Racing Team and Brabham
Race starts 128
Championships 3
Wins 14
Podium finishes 31
Pole positions 13
Fastest laps 12
First Grand Prix 1955 British Grand Prix
First win 1955 Monaco Grand Prix
Last win 1970 South African Grand Prix
Last Grand Prix 1970 Mexican Grand Prix
edit

Sir John Arthur "Jack" Brabham, OBE (born April 2, 1926) is an Australian racing driver who was Formula One champion in 1959, 1960 and 1966.

Brabham was a second generation Australian, born the son of a grocer in the Sydney suburb of Hurstville). He left school at 15 to work in a garage.

During World War II he served in the Royal Australian Air Force. In 1946 he opened a small repair business. He also raced midget cars and in his first season won the NSW Championship and formed a partnership with Ron Tauranac.

In 1955 he made his Grand Prix debut at the British Grand Prix driving his own Maserati 250F. He soon joined the Cooper Car Company team and in 1959 Brabham won the World Championship with a Coventry Climax engined Cooper. In 1960 he won the championship again with Cooper.

Brabham took the Championship-winning Cooper to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for a test following the 1960 season, then entered the famous 500-mile race in a modified version of the Formula One car in 1961. The "funny" little car from Europe was mocked by the other teams, but it ran as high as third and finished ninth. The Indianapolis establishment gradually realized the writing was on the wall as Brabham and his team principal John Cooper had shown that the days of front-engined roadsters were numbered.

In 1961 he founded the Brabham Racing Organisation with Ron Tauranac. A newly introduced engine limit in Formula One of 1500 cc did not suit Brabham and he did not win a single race with a 1500 cc car, although his first team win came in 1964 with Dan Gurney. In 1966 a new 3000 cc formula was created, Brabham in a Brabham-Repco won the championship again. In 1967 the title went to his teammate Denny Hulme. Following injuries in the 1969 season Brabham intended to retire in 1970 but finding no top drivers available he raced for one more year, retiring after the Mexican Grand Prix. After retiring he made a complete break from racing, selling his interest in the team to Tauranac and returning to Australia. He was knighted in 1979.

All three of Brabham's sons - Geoff, Gary and David - are also engaged in racing careers.

He was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1990.

External link

  • Grand Prix History - Hall of Fame, Jack Brabham


Preceded by:
Sir Robert Helpmann
Australian of the Year
1966
Succeeded by:
The Seekers

This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Jack Brabham