Jack Brabham biography
Jack Brabham, in full Sir John Arthur Brabham, byname Black Jack, (born April 2, 1926, Hurtsville, New South Wales, Australia—died May 19, 2014, Gold Coast, Queensland), Australian race-car driver, engineer, and group proprietor who received the Formula One (F1) Grand Prix world drivers’ championship thrice (1959, 1960, and 1966) and the auto constructors’ championship twice (1966 and 1967). In 1966 he grew to become the primary man to win a world driving championship in his personal namesake automotive.
After serving as a mechanic within the Royal Australian Air Force in World War II, Brabham arrange his personal engineering enterprise in 1946. He took up midget-car racing (1946–52) in Australia, and in 1955 he moved to England to drive for the Cooper group in F1 Grand Prix racing. Brabham captured his first F1 victory 4 years later in Monaco. After having secured the world driving championship twice for Cooper, he left the group in 1961 to construct his personal vehicles. That yr he additionally drove within the first of his 4 Indianapolis 500 races and launched the primary rear-engine automobile to Indy automotive racing. Over his 15-year F1 driving profession, Brabham raced in 126 Grand Prix and racked up 14 victories, the final of which got here in South Africa in 1970. He retired on the finish of that season after having completed sixth within the drivers’ championship and fourth within the constructors’ championship.
Brabham was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1967, a yr after he was named Australian of the Year. He was knighted in 1979 and was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1990.