Sir Jack Brabham OBE (b. 1926 )
1966 Award

Top Motor Racing Driver

Born in Sydney, Brabham left school at 15 years of age to become an apprentice mechanic. After serving in the war he started his own engineering workshop where he built and raced a midget car for one of his clients. He won the 1947 New South Wales motor racing championship and the 1948 national title. He shot to the top of Australian motor racing in 1953. Moving to Britain in 1955, he was eventually hired to drive for Cooper and won World Championship Racing Driver in 1959 and 1960. He quit the Cooper company to design, build and race his own cars. Not until 1966 did he win both World Championship Motor Racing Driver for the third time, the first man to do so in a car of his own creation, and the Constructors Championship of the World. Then the biggest manufacturer of racing cars in the world, he won Constructors Championship of the World again in 1967. Brabham retired to Australia in 1970. His cars were said to reflect their maker's personality: uncomplicated, honest and reliable. Brabham has been described as 'not the fastest driver in the world, but...his finishing record is very high...his style is unorthodox and basically untidy, but very effective.'