Black Jack Brabham, a one-off who drove to extraordinary lengths

HE mellowed with age, but the competitive and pioneering spirit never faded.

HE mellowed with age, but the competitive and pioneering spirit never faded.

Jack Brabham, known to his competitors and peers as “Black Jack”, died peacefully at his Gold Coast home yesterday morning.

He wasn’t that far from a car — just the day before he’d flown by helicopter to the Sunshine Coast to see the BT23 Formula Two car he’d designed, built and raced in 1967. “He was absolutely delighted to see the car. He looked great. He was in fine form,” said Steve Pad­gett, who owns the restored racer.

“I just wanted him to see the car. It was a small gathering of family and friends and he was happy to meet everyone,.”

Brabham was 88. He estimated once that he had lost 30 friends over the years to racing accidents, but he never lost his love of the track. Blessed with mechanical and racing skills, he avoided most serious accidents, and escaped others through luck. It wasn’t until a smash at Goodwood in Britain during a vintage car race, in his late 70s, that he spent a night in hospital because of his sport.

Active to the end, he was slowed by deafness, eye problems and a debilitating kidney disease.

Brabham was the first Australian crowned World Champion in the elite Formula One racing arena. Having cut his teeth on speedway tracks at home, he went to Europe and made a name for himself winning the 1959 championship, having to push his car over the line when it ran out of fuel in the last race of the year.

As much engineer as driver, he made further advances to the car and won again in 1960, but it was six years later, in his own team, in a car with an Australian engine, that he became the first man to win the championship in his own vehicle. Nobody has done that since.

“Built, designed and engineered his own car and won the world championship,” fellow racing legend Alan Jones said yesterday. “I mean, that’s an unbelievable feat which hasn’t been done before and I don’t think will ever be done again.

“Just showing young blokes that it can be done. If you have the determination and the willpower and single-mindedness you can pack your bags, you can go to the other end of the world and you can achieve your goal, your dream, which he did.”

Brabham raced in 126 Grands Prix from 1955 to 1970, and won 14. He stood on the podium 31 times, had 13 pole positions and 12 fastest laps. His three sons won various championships and two grandsons race in Europe and the US. “It’s a very sad day for all of us,” son David Brabham said yesterday.

John Bertrand, chairman of the Sport Australia Hall of Fame, hailed Brabham’s achievements. “His career was absolutely extraordinary. To do what he did in isolation from help and assistance, it’s a remarkable story of one man who designed and built and drove his own car to the Formula One world title.

“The creativity of one man and his ability to make things happen was quite extraordinary.”