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Australia

Jack Brabham started racing in the early 1950s in New South Wales. An American friend, Johnny Schonberg, introduced him to midget car racing – a form of open wheel racing using small front engined cars on dirt tracks, which was popular in the States and Australia. Brabham’s initial involvement was as mechanic, but when Schonberg’s wife prevailed on him to stop competing, Brabham took over the car.

He rapidly developed into a competitive driver, winning ????. He largely built his own cars, creating bespoke engines and other components for the chassis. It was around this time he first met fellow racer and car builder Ron Tauranac, who would later become his business partner. Brabham ran a small machine shop in Sydney, in which he made and repaired parts for himself and for other drivers.

In 195? Brabham took part in a rally event across the Australian outback. After breaking the car’s suspension on a rock, Brabham had to walk to the nearest settlements, ? miles away, to borrow welding gear, before returning to the vehicle, welding it up and continuing on his way.

In 195? Brabham moved on to track racing. His ‘Redex special’ used a Cooper Car Company chassis and a Bristol engine, both items imported from the United Kingdom, as is often the case for racing cars in Australia. He was again very successful with the car, although he was unhappy when the CAMS, Australia’s motorsport governing body, required that he end his sponsorship by Redex. In 1955? Brabham was persuaded, after a meeting with ???, to try his luck in the United Kingdom, of which Australia was then still a dependency??? He was 29.

United Kingdom

Brabham sold his Cooper-Bristol before leaving Australia. He bought a Cooper Alta when he arrived in the UK, which he felt was inferior to his old car and later bought a Maserati 250F, with which he had very little luck. He worked at the Cooper Car Company doing odd jobs, before being offered the opportunity to build up a Cooper sports car and compete with it. From there Brabham progressed to becoming part of the workd Cooper team. Although he entered two Formula One events under his own ‘J A Brabham’ banner in the mid 1950s, he did not start a full season until 1958? At the time any individual could enter a car for a Formula One race, the decision on whether to allow the entry being up to the race organisers.

Brabham’s driving style was referred to as ‘dirt track’, indicating that he was sliding the tail of the car out as he went round corners. He was also noted for sometimes driving through the dirt at the edge of the track and throwing stones up at cars behind.

Nonetheless, he won (various?) including ???

[edit] Formula One

[edit] Cooper

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In 1957 Brabham scored his first Formula One points at the (Monaco?? GP)., although he had to push the car across the line to do so. He continued to score minor results over the next two seasons, while Cooper developed their revolutionary mid engined cars and Coventry Climax developed a larger dervative of their racing engine. In 1958 Stirling Moss was the first to win a race in a mid-engined Cooper, driving for Rob Walker’s privateer team. The following season Brabham won four straight races in a developed T51? And took the championship. He repeated the feat the following season in the ‘lowline’ T51, a car with which he had a considerable degree of technical input, especially in persuading the conservative and penny pinching Coopers to spend the money required.

1961 was less successful, the Coopers were now being out-developed by Lotus and Ferrari, the later took the championship. It was a difficult season for Brabham. He became the first driver to compete with a modern mid engined car at Indianapolis when Cooper took a developed version of their T51 there. He finished ??

Dissatisfied with the progress being made by Cooper, Brabham felt he could do better and started the process of setting up his own motor racing manufactuer in 1960 when he invited Ron Tauranac to the UK to work with him, initially at the tuning company that Brabham had set up, but with the intention of designing and building racing cars.

[edit] Brabham

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Brabham had three roles in his newly created company. Firstly, and most obviously, he was initially the only, and often, but not always, the lead driver in Formula One and in other categories. A related role was his ability as a test driver – he undertook most of the testing (fact?) of the early Brabham designs for all categories. Goodyear were also keen to make use of his abilities in this area.

Secondly, he was a fixer. Brabham made many of the deals which allowed Tauranac to focus on designing and building the cars. Brabham had the links with the British car industry which allowed Brabham to make its pioneering use of wind tunnels. Brabham made the contacts with Honda which led to the fruitful F2 season of 1966. Brabham investigated the availability of suitable engine blocks, and having found one, persuaded the board of Repco to set up a small company to design and manufacture a suitable engine, effectively for his use. He also took care of the annual budget for racing through long term contacts such as Esso, it was this aspect in particular which Tauranac felt he could not take on when Brabham left at the end of 1970.

Finally, he had a technical involvement in the design and manufacture of the cars. He had done the same thing at Cooper. Although this was very clearly Tauranac’s domain, Brabham contributed ideas to the design process. Since he was also a skilled machinist and did often manufacture components, a process which Tauranac has noted was useful in cutting down lead times under some circumstances, the situation was often over-reported in contemporary press. ‘Brabham wins in car of his own manufacture’

After Racing Brabham returned to Australia in 1970 to be with his wife and three sons. He took up various business interests, including large farm in NSW.

He set up Engine Developments Ltd with John Judd, who had worked for him on the Brabham Repco engine project. He sold his part of the company to Judd in ???? He maintained his garage in Chessingham until 199?

He has continued to appear in various race events, usually but not always of historic cars. Most recently he has competed at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

In the early 1990s he had a small involvement in the launch of the Simtek Formula One team, for which his youngest son David was driving. His role was mainly promotional, although David Brabham noted at the time that ‘(he) still had things to offer on the technical side’.

He sits on the board of Jack Brabham Engines, a company which holds patents on various engine technology.