JACK BRABHAM (Repco Brabham V8 BT31)
Back home 'among the gum trees', Sir Jack Brabham OBE, Australia's most famous racing driver, is a picture of concentration as he approaches McPhillamy Park at the top of the mountain on his way to winning the Bathurst 100 at Mount Panorama, April 7, 1969. (Photograph by Nigel Foote)
In an extraordinary career, Jack Brabham won the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in 1959, 1960 and 1966. Brabham was also named Formula One World Constructors Champion in 1966 and 1967, when first he and then Denny Hulme, driving their Repco V8 Brabhams, defeated the world's best teams, including Ferrari, Maserati, Lotus and BRM. Brabham remains the only driver in Formula One history to win the World Drivers' Championship in a car of his own design.
'Black Jack's' beaming smile and sense of humour made him immensely popular, both internationally and back home in Australia, and the crowds flocked to the track to see their world champion in action whenever he returned Down Under. He won both the Australian and New Zealand Grand Prix three times. Perhaps it's no coincidence that many of Australia's motor-racing circuits, including Warwick Farm, Sandown, Catalina Park, Oran Park and Lakeside, were established between 1960 and 1962, following his first two world championships.
Brabham was announced Australian of the Year in 1966, awarded the Order of the British Empire in 1976, and was the world's first racing driver to be knighted, for 'distinguished service to the sport of motor racing' (1979). Sir Jack Brabham was awarded the Order of Australia in 2008.
Note: April 7, 1969 (the day this photograph was taken) was a sad day in the history of Australian motor sport, for we lost young Bevan Gibson (22) when his Elphin sports car crashed after becoming airborne over the second hump on Conrod Straight at around 150 mph. He had just set a new sports car lap record on the previous lap.