SYDNEY: Australian Jack Brabham, who won three Formula One world titles and is the only man to have won the championship driving a car bearing his name, died at the age of 88 yesterday.
A fierce competitor, brilliant engineer and astute businessman, Brabham claimed the Formula One titles in 1959 and 1960 for Cooper Racing before going on to win a third in 1966 for the Brabham marque.
He died at his home on Australia’s Gold Coast.
“It’s a very sad day for all of us,” his youngest son David, who also raced in Formula One, said in a statement.
“My father passed away peacefully at home at the age of 88 this morning. He lived an incredible life, achieving more than anyone would ever dream of and he will continue to live on through the astounding legacy he leaves behind.”
Described by 1980 world champion Alan Jones as “inspirational” to the Australian drivers that followed the trail he blazed, Brabham was also the subject of a tribute from his country’s Prime Minister, Tony Abbott.
“Australia has lost a legend,” Abbott said in statement. “With his pioneering spirit, Sir Jack Brabham personified many great Australian characteristics.
“He was respected and admired for his spirit, and for his great skill as an engineer.”
A former Royal Australian Air Force mechanic, Brabham began racing midget cars on cinder tracks in Australia in 1948 before moving to Britain to pursue his career in Formula One in the mid 1950s.
Brabham became the first Australian to win the Formula One title in 1959, famously pushing his car uphill to the finishing line to seal the triumph after running out of fuel on the final lap at the U.S. Grand Prix at Sebring.
After his second triumph for Cooper, Brabham set up a company with friend and fellow Australian Ron Tauranac to design and build their own cars, one of which he drove to the Formula One title in 1966 at the age of 40.
“On track he was always the toughest of tough competitors, tough sometimes to the point at which I’d wonder how could such a nice bloke out of a car grow such horns and a tail inside one,” his British rival Stirling Moss recalled in the foreword to the “You’d always know when Jack was on a charge because he’d crouch down and almost disappear within the cockpit.
Tail-out, broadsiding, showering me with gravel and tuffets from the verge. “Dear me, you could take the Aussie out of the dirt tracks but you couldn’t take the dirt tracks out of the Aussie. But the greater side of Jack’s character was always his sportsmanship.” Nicknamed “Black Jack” for his mop of dark hair and taciturn nature, Brabham would become “Geriatric Jack” as he raced on into his 40s. REUTERS
