It’s fitting that Sir Jack Brabham’s legacy will be celebrated so soon after his passing, and at two iconic motorsport events he influenced so greatly.
It was at the Monaco Grand Prix and Indianapolis 500, both to be held this Sunday, where Brabham’s pioneering efforts shook the motorsport world.
Brabham won his first grand prix on the streets of Monte Carlo in the season-opening event of 1959, driving a revolutionary rear-engined Cooper-Climax. He would go onto to win the Formula One world championship that year, the first of three titles.
Two years later he took another Cooper-Climax to the Indianapolis 500, kick-starting the rear-engine revolution in the United States of America. Though he wouldn’t win at the Brickyard, he advanced the technical side of the sport by ending the dominance of the bulky front-engined cars.
What a legacy to leave for a driver who would go on to become the only man to construct and drive a car to a Formula One world championship in 1966, a record never to be repeated.
Brabham’s legacy will be in evidence at Monaco and Indianapolis this weekend, not just from a technical perspective but also in the fact that Australians are in contention for the win across both sides of the Atlantic.
After all, it was his pioneering successes in Europe that paved the way for other Australians to venture overseas to compete in so many international categories.
As former Australian Grand Prix organiser Mike Drewer articulated so well during the week, “He won three world championships and in doing so established a sort of diplomatic credibility for Australian racing among European officials.”
The fact we have Australians competing in top-line motorsport categories such as Formula One, IndyCar, NASCAR, MotoGP, World Rally Championship and more, in addition to a strong domestic scene headlined by V8 Supercars, is evidence of the respect Brabham earned for Australians in the wider world of motorsport.
Consider also his own family legacy, with sons Geoff, Gary and David having a combined record that includes Le Mans and Bathurst wins and Formula One grand prix and IndyCar starts.
Grandsons Matthew and Sam are following in the family tradition and are ones to watch in the future. Matthew (son of Geoff) is the competing in the feeder category to IndyCar (Indy Lights) and recently won at Indianapolis. Sam (son of David) is racing in British Formula Ford, a key developmental series in Europe.
Without Brabham it’s unlikely a country so remote from motorsport’s heartlands in Europe and the United States of America could now have so many representatives.
In Monaco this Sunday, Daniel Ricciardo will be looking to replicate Brabham and score his first win at the most prestigious of all grands prix, as the clear best of the rest behind the dominant Mercedes-Benz team. While the Mercs have a clear speed advantage over Ricciardo’s Red Bull and the rest, the punishing streets of Monaco can spring a surprise or two.
Across at Indy a few hours later, Will Power, Ryan Briscoe and James Davison (a member of the other Australian racing dynasty, the Davisons) will race in the Indy 500. Power and Briscoe line up with the two strongest teams in the field, multiple 500 winners Penske Racing and Chip Ganassi Racing respectively.
Power will start from the front row in third place as he looks to translate his road/street course race-winning form onto high-speed ovals, while Briscoe and Davison will have to race through the field from the penultimate row.
And let’s not forget former V8 Supercars champion Marcos Ambrose, who will compete in NASCAR’s longest race, the Coca Cola 600 in Charlotte, on Monday morning Australian time.
There’s even more reason to hope for an Australian success in these events, as a fitting tribute to the man who paved the way for these Aussies to get there in the first place.
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