1969 Brabham BT26A

Tom Wheatcroft bought this car in 1969 and it was raced by Derek Bell in four of the Tasman series of races in January of 1970 including the New Zealand Grand Prix where he ended in second place. The car was then brought back to the UK where Derek Bell was entered for the 1970 Race of Champions at Brands Hatch, but did not start there because of an accident in practice. The car was repaired and entered for the Belgian Grand Prix, but Derek Bell retired on the first lap with gearbox problems, after which Tom Wheatcroft retired the car to his Museum where I took this photograph in May 1989.

It's a 1969 Brabham BT26A, chassis BT26/4, which was originally raced by the Brabham team in 1969 by Jacky Ickx and Jack Brabham. The Brabham BT26, designed by Ron Tauranac, was introduced in 1968 and had a 2,994cc Repco 860 V8 engine that proved to be very fast but unreliable, Jack Brabham and Jochen Rindt each managing to finish in only two of the races. In 1969 the cars used the 2,993cc V8 Ford Cosworth DFV engine and were much more competitive. Two of the 1968 cars were updated to this BT26A specification with the new engine, and BT26/4 was a new car. Jacky Ickx won the German Grand Prix and the Canadian Grand Prix and finished in second place to Jackie Stewart in the World Drivers' Championship. Jack Brabham, despite missing three races due to an injury in testing still finished in tenth place in the Championship. Jackie Ickx drove BT26/4, the Donington Park car, in his win in the German Grand Prix and the car is now part of Roald Goethe's ROFGO Collection.