Gary Brabham

Gary Brabham in his Life overalls (1990)

**Gary Thomas Brabham** (born 30 September 1961) is a former racing driver from Australia. His solitary F1 berth came with Life, a team that failed to prequalify for a single F1 race in its lone season of existence.

## Early life and career

Brabham, born in Wimbledon, England, was the second-born of the triple World Champion Sir Jack Brabham. His brothers Geoff and David Brabham are also racing drivers. Gary had no intention of following in his father's footsteps. He was content to be a farmer in Wagga Wagga, Australia's rural New South Wales. He quickly learned, however, that he had inherited the racing bug, and made his racing debut in Formula Fords in 1982, coming third in his maiden race at Calder and breaking the Sandown FFord lap record in a nine-year-old car! Later that year, he was selected to travel to Europe in 1983. Despite lukewarm support from the Australian public, he drove for Neil Trundle Racing in a Reynard SF83 in Formula Ford 2000 in England in 1983, with Maurício Gugelmin and JJ Lehto. Brabham finished 11th overall, with a best finish of 5th.

In 1984, he stayed in the series with the unfortunate-sounding Penistone Racing team (yes, that was their real name) as a teammate to Julian Bailey in Reynard SF84s, surpassing the future Tyrrell driver until team orders stepped in to ensure the local was not exceeded. Despite this, Brabham finished sixth overall. Indeed, because to the prejudice in favour of his teammate (as mandated by sponsors BP), Brabham used to inherit all of the broken parts from the accident-prone Bailey's car. In one case, Bailey crashed in qualifying at Snetterton, and the crew transferred the damaged rocker to Brabham's car. Despite this, Gary continued to lead his teammate until the inevitable happened and the rocker dislodged.

Throughout 1984, he raced sports cars in the Thundersports Series (although he actually made his debut in this category in 1983, Hatch in a March 83S Ford shared with Alo Lawler at Brands Hatch) and won his first race at Snetterton, driving a Tiga TS84 Ford with Tim Lee-Davey. He also competed in the British Rally Cross Grand Prix in an 800hp Porsche 911 rally car and finished fourth in the *BBC Grandstand* Series in FF2000. With these performances, Brabham believed he had a top-tier FF2000 drive lined up for 1985, and he went to Australia for the holidays. He was so wrong. The transaction fell through, and 1985 was a flop. He lacked motivation and had to resort to truck racing in a 7.5 tonne Leyland Roadtrain at the British Truck GP at Brands Hatch just to get onto the track. A temporary reprieve came in the Thundersports series, where he drove for the TechSpeed Racing team in a two-litre Shrike P15 Ford with ex-F1 female racer Divina Galica, finishing fifth five times.

Still, in 1986, his father formed a team, and Gary competed in 9 of the 18 British F3 rounds in a Ralt/VW RT30, finishing second at Silverstone Circuit and fifth in the championship with 22 points, barely ahead of Bailey. Brabham received the Cellnet Motor Racing Award for the finest emerging British and Commonwealth driver. In 1987, Jack Brabham Racing was sponsored by Panasonic for 15 of the 19 events, and in a Ralt RT31 powered by a VW engine, Brabham won two races at Silverstone and Donington Park, finishing sixth overall with 37 points. Johnny Herbert defeated Bertrand Gachot, Martin Donnelly, Thomas Danielsson, and Damon Hill to win the championship. However, Brabham was only two points behind Herbert when his money ran out, so beating the likes of Perry McCarthy, Roland Ratzenberger, Mark Blundell, and Jean-Denis Deletraz was paltry consolation.

But, before 1987, Brabham shown his adaptability by finishing third in a Group A Toyota Supra rally car at the British Rallysprint round at Brands Hatch. He then returned briefly to Australia, where he got up to fifth in the Bathurst 1000 while sharing a works BMW M3 with Juan Manuel Fangio II before Fangio collided with a stricken car in the rain. But, to demonstrate his speed, Gary had a fantastic battle with eventual victor Peter Brock late in the race, even passing the Aussie veteran. He also won one race in Australian Formula Atlantic before returning to Europe. Brabham joined Bowman Racing to race a Ralt/VW RT32 in the 1988 British F3 championship, and while Lehto won on 113 points, the Aussie stormed home late in the season, winning four races to finish second on 81, ahead of Hill, Donnelly, and Eddie Irvine. Along the way, he won the Scottish Superprix and the Oulton Park Gold Cup, beating Hill to the honour of following in the footsteps of their dads, both of whom had won the trophy.

Gary finished fifth at Macau late in the year, earning him the Bruce McLaren Motor Racing Award. He was so excellent that Thierry Boutsen's Benetton team manager Peter Collins invited him to test Thierry Boutsen's Benetton at Jerez in December 1988. He assisted in the testing of Goodyear tyres as well as the Benetton active suspension system. Brabham had previously demonstrated his testing ability earlier in the year when he assisted in the development of the Avon radial tyre for F3 use. When the International F3000 drive he was poised for went to Andrea Chiesa in 1989, he once again got a harsh deal. He settled for a drive in the British F3000 series with Bromley Motorsport in an ex-Jean Alesi Reynard 88D Cosworth, where he easily won the first title with four victories and four poles, and finished second in the Oulton Park Gold Cup.

He also raced in the International F3000 series for the Bromley and Leyton House teams in a Reynard 89D Cosworth and a March 89B Judd, finishing fifth at Brands Hatch. In 1989, he competed in the Le Mans 24 Hours in a Porsche 962C driven by Team Schuppan, with Vern Schuppan and Eje Elgh. Gary was in fourth place at the 21-hour mark when his gearbox failed, putting his car to 13th. He finished fifth in the Macau F3 race again, and he tested the Footwork F3000 car, the Brabham and Leyton House F1 cars, the Porsche Indy car, and he helped create an F3000 tyre for Avon, as well as an anti-roll device for Group A Ford Sierras.

## Formula One

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