1956 Cooper T41

I took this photograph in the paddock at Oulton Park at the Gold Cup meeting in September 1956 which was run under the 1½ litre Formula 2 regulations which were to take effect in the 1957 season.

Several Formula 2 races took place in 1956 which, as in this Gold Cup meeting, included 1½ litre sports cars such as the Lotus Eleven because not many Formula 2 cars had been built at this stage. The photograph shows Jack Brabham being given a push start in his Cooper T41 which had a 1,460cc Coventry Climax engine.

Jack Brabham

In the 1950s and 60s if you went to race meetings on the practice day you could wander round the paddock watching the mechanics preparing the cars and mingle with the drivers and team members. I took this photograph on the Friday practice day at Aintree for the 1962 British Grand Prix.

This is Jack Brabham who drove a Lotus 24 at this meeting because his first Brabham car, the BT3 wasn't yet ready to race - it made its debut in the next Grand Prix in Germany. He qualified in ninth place on the grid and finished the race in fifth place, albeit a lap behind the winner Jim Clark in his Lotus 25. 

1962 Lotus 24

This is one of the photographs I took in the paddock at Aintree during practice for the British Grand Prix in July 1962.

It's Jack Brabham's 1962 Lotus 24 with a 1,496cc Coventry Climax V8 FWMV engine. Jack Brabham had left the Cooper team at the end of the previous season to design his own F1 car and in the 1962 season he competed with the Lotus 24 until the Brabham BT3 was available. It was hoped that he'd be able to drive the BT3 in the British Grand Prix, but it wasn't ready till the following race in Germany. At Aintree Jack Brabham qualified the car in ninth place on the grid and ended the race in fifth place. He was ninth in the World Drivers' Championship table that year, ending the season with fourth place finishes in the last two races with the Brabham BT3.

1962 Lotus 24

I took this photograph in the paddock at Aintree during in July 1962 during practice for the British Grand Prix.

It's Jack Brabham's 1962 Lotus 24 with a 1,496cc Coventry Climax V8 engine. Jack Brabham had left the Cooper team at the end of the previous season to design his own F1 car and in the 1962 season he competed with the Lotus 24 until the Brabham BT3 was available. It was hoped that he'd be able to drive the BT3 in the British Grand Prix, but it wasn't ready till the following race in Germany. At Aintree Jack Brabham qualified the car in ninth place on the grid and ended the race in fifth place. He was ninth in the World Drivers' Championship table that year, ending the season with fourth place finishes in the last two races with the Brabham BT3.

 

Brabham BT34

I photographed this car at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in August 1996 which included a tribute to Sir Jack Brabham who was 70 years old that year.

It's a 1971 Brabham BT34, a car designed by Ron Tauranac who placed the car's radiators in front of the front wheels in order to fit a wing to give downforce at the front. Because of the unusual look of the bulky radiators at the front of the car the BT34 was dubbed the 'lobster claw'. Only one BT34 was built and it was powered by the 2,993cc V8 Ford Cosworth DFV engine. Graham Hill drove the car in the 1971 season without much success, his best result being fifth place in the Austrian Grand Prix, although he did win the International Trophy Race at Silverstone. In 1972 the car was driven by Carlos Reutemann and Wilson Fittipaldi, the best result being Carlos Reutemann's win in the non-Championship Brazilian Grand Prix. There were track demonstrations at the meeting featuring various Brabham cars in which the BT34 was driven by John Watson.

Cooper T55

I took this photograph in the paddock during practice for the Aintree 200 race at the Aintree circuit in April 1961.

It's the Cooper T55, chassis F1/10/61, of Jack Brabham in which he qualified in second position on the grid to Graham Hill in a BRM P57. The T55 was making its debut in this race, which Jack Brabham won followed by his team-mate Bruce McLaren in another T55 with Graham Hill in third place. The Cooper T55 was powered by the Coventry Climax 1½ litre 4-cylinder FPF engines which proved no match for the 1½ litre V6 engines of the Ferrari 156 in the 1961 World Championship races. This website shows the full racing history of F1/10/61.

Brabham BT19

The Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in August 1996 featured a tribute to Jack Brabham in the year of his 70th birthday. During the weekend of that meeting there were track parades by some of the cars bearing his name and here's a photograph I took during one of those demonstrations.

The first car here, driven by Jack Brabham himself, is the 1966 Brabham BT19 with which he won the 1966 World Championship. Only one BT19 was ever built, designed by Ron Tauranac in 1965 and originally intended to have a 1½ litre Coventry Climax engine, but when the F1 regulations were changed to allow engines twice that size from the 1966 season it was replaced by the 3 litre V8 Repco engine. Following the BT19 is the 1971 Brabham BT34 'lobster claw' car driven by, I think, John Watson. Jack Brabham won the World Championship in the BT19 and remains the only man to have won it in a car bearing his own name.

On 20 May 2014, the day after the death of Jack Brabham, I posted my own little tribute to him which included a photograph of the Brabham BT19 that I'd taken in the paddock at this 1996 meeting.

Jack Brabham

This is a photograph I took in the paddock during practice the day before the British Grand Prix at Aintree in 1962.

It's Jack Brabham in the Brabham Racing Organisation Lotus 24 preparing to go out on a practice run. He drove the Lotus in the early part of that season whilst he was waiting for his new Brabham BT3 to be ready - his team had hoped that he would be able to race the car in the British Grand Prix but in the event it wasn't ready until the following race, the German Grand Prix. At Aintree Jack qualified the Lotus in ninth place on the grid and ended the race in fifth place, a lap behind the winner Jim Clark in a Lotus 25.

Here's Jack Brabham approaching Waterway Corner during a practice run.

Sir Jack Brabham OBE

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.