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Geoffrey John Brabham
(born 20 March 1952) is an Australian racing driver. Brabham spent the majority of his racing career in the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
.
Racing career
CART
He raced successfully in
CART
A cart or dray (Australia and New Zealand) is a vehicle designed for transport, using two wheels and normally pulled by draught animals such as horses, donkeys, mules and oxen, or even smaller animals such as goats or large dogs.
A handcart ...
early in his career, finishing 8th in 1982, 1984 and 1987 with nine podiums. In ten appearances in the
Indianapolis 500
The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly shortened to Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indian ...
, he had a best result of fourth in
1983
1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call.
Events January
* January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...
and fifth in
1981
Events January
* January 1
** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union.
** Palau becomes a self-governing territory.
* January 6 – A funeral service is held in West Germany for Nazi Grand Admiral ...
.
Sports car racing

His greatest source of success was in various forms of
sports cars
A sports car is a type of automobile that is designed with an emphasis on dynamic performance, such as handling, acceleration, top speed, the thrill of driving, and racing capability. Sports cars originated in Europe in the early 1910s and ar ...
, winning four
IMSA GTP
IMSA GT classes are former classifications of sports prototypes in sports car racing competing in the IMSA GT Championship. The classes were used at different, overlapping times during the period from 1971 to 1998, over which the championship ran.
...
titles (1988–1991) when racing for
Nissan
is a Japanese multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan. The company sells its vehicles under the ''Nissan'' and ''Infiniti'' brands, and formerly the ''Datsun'' brand, with in-house ...
, and one
Can-Am
The Canadian-American Challenge Cup, or Can-Am, was an SCCA/ CASC sports car racing series from 1966 to 1974, and again from 1977 to 1987.
The Can-Am rules were deliberately simple and placed few limits on the entries. This led to a wide variet ...
championship (1981).
Brabham also won the
1993 24 Hours of Le Mans
The 1993 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 61st Grand Prix of Endurance, taking place at the Circuit de la Sarthe on the 19 and 20 June 1993. The race was won by Peugeot Sport, Peugeot Talbot Sport, with drivers Geoff Brabham, and Le Mans rookies Éri ...
driving one of the factory
Peugeot 905 alongside French drivers
Éric Hélary
Éric Georges Roger Hélary (born 10 August 1966) is a professional racing driver from Paris. His career has encompassed single seater formulae, endurance sports car racing, and touring cars. He won the French Formula Three Championship in 199 ...
and
Christophe Bouchut
Christophe Bouchut (born 24 September 1966 in Voiron, Isère) is a French professional racing driver. He currently competes in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series, driving for Dexwet-df1 Racing and Alex Caffi Motorsport in a part-time effort. He won t ...
. His younger brother
David Brabham
David Philip Brabham (born 5 September 1965) is an Australian racing driver and one of the most successful and experienced specialists in sports car racing. He has won three international Sports Car series and is one of four Australians to have ...
had won the GT class in the race driving a
Jaguar XJ220 for
Tom Walkinshaw Racing
Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR) was a motor racing team and engineering firm founded in 1976, in Kidlington, near Oxford, England, by touring car racer Tom Walkinshaw.
The company initially handled privateer work before entering works touring car ...
, but the team was later disqualified for technical infringements. Geoff Brabham became just the third Australian driver to win
Le Mans
Le Mans (; ) is a Communes of France, city in Northwestern France on the Sarthe (river), Sarthe River where it meets the Huisne. Traditionally the capital of the Provinces of France, province of Maine (province), Maine, it is now the capital of ...
after
Bernard Rubin (
1928
Events January
* January – British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly demonstrating that DNA is the genetic material.
* January 1 – Eastern Bloc emigration and defection: Boris B ...
) and
Vern Schuppan in
1983
1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call.
Events January
* January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...
. David Brabham would also go on to win Le Mans in
2009
2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...
, also driving for the factory Peugeot team.
Touring car racing
Later in his career, Brabham returned to Australia, where he was runner-up in the 1995 and 1997
Australian Super Touring Championship
The Australian Super Touring Championship (formerly known as the Australian 2.0 Litre Touring Car Championship) was a Confederation of Australian Motor Sport, CAMS-sanctioned national motor racing title for Super Touring Cars.
History
Super Touri ...
, and won the
1997 Bathurst 1000 Super Touring race driving a
BMW 320i
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, trading as BMW Group (commonly abbreviated to BMW (), sometimes anglicised as Bavarian Motor Works), is a German multinational manufacturer of vehicles and motorcycles headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. The ...
alongside brother David. The pair initially finished second behind
BMW Motorsport Australia teammates
Paul Morris and
Craig Baird
Craig George Baird (born 22 July 1970) is a New Zealand former racing driver who now is the driving standards observer for the Australians, Australian Supercars Championship.
Honours
In the 2010 New Year Honours (New Zealand), 2010 New Year ...
, but a blunder by the team left Baird in his car at the final pit stop which meant that by the end of the race, the
Kiwi
Kiwi most commonly refers to:
* Kiwi (bird), a flightless bird native to New Zealand
* Kiwi (nickname), an informal name for New Zealanders
* Kiwifruit, an edible hairy fruit with many seeds
* Kiwi dollar or New Zealand dollar, a unit of curren ...
driver had breached the race regulation which limited any one driver to a maximum of three hours continuous driving. This caused their disqualification and handed the win to the Brabham brothers.

Brabham dabbled in V8 Supercar drives in his native Australia throughout his career. He is still one of the few drivers to win his first race, Sandown 500 in 1993. He started eleven races for one victory.
Stock car racing
Brabham took two race victories in the
International Race of Champions
International Race of Champions (IROC) was a North American auto racing competition, created by Les Richter, Roger Penske and Mike Phelps, promoted as an American-motorsports equivalent of an all-star game. Despite its name, IROC was primarily ...
stock car series (1992 and 1993), both at Michigan. He made his only
NASCAR
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...
Winston Cup Series
The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), the most prestigious stock car racing series in the United States.
The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, and fro ...
start at the first ever
Brickyard 400
The Brickyard 400 is an annual NASCAR Cup Series points race held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana, United States. The inaugural race was held in 1994 and was the first race other than the Indianapolis 500 to be held at the ...
at Indianapolis in 1994, driving for
Michael Kranefuss. Brabham crashed in the second half of the race.
Personal life
He is the son of three-time
Formula One
Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...
World Champion
Jack Brabham
Sir John Arthur Brabham (2 April 1926 – 19 May 2014) was an Australian racing driver and motorsport executive, who competed in Formula One from to . Brabham won three Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles, which he won in , and , ...
. He has two younger brothers;
Gary and
David
David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament.
The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Dam ...
. Geoff teamed with David to win the
1997 Bathurst 1000 in a
BMW
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, trading as BMW Group (commonly abbreviated to BMW (), sometimes anglicised as Bavarian Motor Works), is a German multinational manufacturer of vehicles and motorcycles headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Th ...
, becoming the only brothers to have combined to win the race. Although the most successful of the second generation of racing Brabhams, unlike his siblings he did not compete in World Championship
Formula One
Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...
.
Married to Roseina Brabham, a multi-time jet-ski champion, Brabham has retired from competition himself to focus on his son
Matthew's racing career. After a successful karting career, Matthew moved into international open-wheel racing and the
Road to Indy
The USF Pro Championships Presented by Continental Tire, formerly known as the Road to Indy Presented by Cooper Tires, is a racecar driver development program, providing a scholarship-funded path to reach the IndyCar Series and Indianapolis 500. ...
ladder; he is also a three-time
Stadium Super Trucks
The Stadium Super Trucks (SST), formerly known as Speed Energy Formula Off-Road, also known as the Boost Mobile Super Trucks in Australia, is an American short course off-road racing series created by off-road racer and former IndyCar and NASCAR d ...
champion.
Awards
He was inducted in the
Motorsports Hall of Fame of America
The Motorsports Hall of Fame of America (MSHFA) is a hall of fame that honors motorsports competitors and contributors from the United States from all disciplines, with categories for Open Wheel, Stock Cars, Powerboats, Drag Racing, Motorcycles ...
[Geoff Brabham]
at the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America
The Motorsports Hall of Fame of America (MSHFA) is a hall of fame that honors motorsports competitors and contributors from the United States from all disciplines, with categories for Open Wheel, Stock Cars, Powerboats, Drag Racing, Motorcycles ...
in 2004. In 2014, Brabham was assigned as the chief director of
Nissan
is a Japanese multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan. The company sells its vehicles under the ''Nissan'' and ''Infiniti'' brands, and formerly the ''Datsun'' brand, with in-house ...
and its developer
Nismo
, abbreviated as Nismo, is a division of Nissan Motorsports & Customizing focused in motorsport and performance-oriented car models for Nissan. Nismo was initially a company, , formed in 1984 as a result of a merger of two motorsport departmen ...
.
Racing record
American Open-Wheel racing results
Complete USAC Mini-Indy Series results
Complete USAC Championship Car results
CART
(
key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)
Indianapolis 500
Touring/Sports Cars
Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results
V8 Supercar results
Complete Bathurst 1000 results
* Super Touring
Super Touring, Class 2 or Class II was a auto racing, motor racing touring car category defined by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) for national touring car racing in 1993. It was based on the "2 litre Touring Car Form ...
race
Complete Sandown 500 results
Complete Australian Super Touring Championship results
NASCAR
(
key) (
Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. ''Italics'' – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)
Winston Cup Series
References
External links
*
Conrod Profile - V8 Supercar stats
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brabham, Geoff
1952 births
24 Hours of Le Mans drivers
24 Hours of Le Mans winning drivers
Atlantic Championship drivers
Australian expatriate sportspeople in the United States
Australian Formula 2 drivers
Bathurst 1000 winners
Geoff
Champ Car drivers
Indianapolis 500 drivers
International Race of Champions drivers
SCCA Formula Super Vee drivers
Formula Super Vee Champions
Living people
NASCAR drivers
Racing drivers from Sydney
Australian IndyCar Series drivers
Sportsmen from New South Wales
Supercars Championship drivers
World Sportscar Championship drivers
Australian Formula One drivers
British Formula One Championship drivers
12 Hours of Sebring drivers
Team Penske drivers
Peugeot Sport drivers
Nismo drivers
BMW M drivers
Racing drivers from New South Wales