It was sad to hear the news of
Jack Brabham's death yesterday at his home in Australia's Gold Coast in Queensland at the age of 88. I saw him race on several occasions in the 1950s and 60s at Oulton Park and Aintree, most notably his winning drive in the 1959 British Grand Prix at Aintree in a Cooper Climax T51 on his way to winning his first World Championship. Here are a couple of photographs I took of him preparing to take part in a demonstration run in a Cooper T51 at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1993.
My copy of the programme of the meeting was autographed by Jack Brabham at one of the signing sessions, together with
Lofty England,
Tony Rolt and
Roy Salvadori, all of whom are no longer with us.
Also competing at the 1993 Silverstone meeting was the Cooper Bristol T40 which Jack Brabham drove in the British Grand Prix of 1955 and which in 1993 was owned by Thomas Bscher and driven in the Champagne Charles Heidsieck Sports Car race at the meeting by Katharina Schmidt.
After winning the 1959 and 1960 World Championships with the Cooper Climax T51 and T53 cars Jack Brabham went on to form his own Brabham team and in 1966 became the first (and so far only) driver to win the Formula One World Championship in one of his own cars. For the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in August 1996 the organisers paid a special tribute in the programme to Jack Brabham in his 70th year and the front of the programme featured a montage of drawings of him.
Although it did not take part in the racing the Brabham Repco BT19 with which Jack Brabham won the 1966 World Championship was on display in the paddock during this meeting.
