David Philip Brabham (born 5 September 1965) is an Australian

racing driver Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. In North America, the term is commonly used to describe all forms of automobile sport including non ...

and one of the most successful and experienced specialists in

sports car racing Sports car racing is a form of motorsport road racing that uses sports cars with two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be either purpose-built Sports prototype, sports prototypes, which are the highest level in sports car racing; or grand to ...

. He has won three international Sports Car series and is one of four Australians to have won the

Le Mans 24 Hour The 24 Hours of Le Mans () is an endurance-focused sports car race held annually near the city of Le Mans, France. It is widely considered to be one of the world's most prestigious races, and is one of the races—along with the Monaco Grand ...

sports car race, winning the event in . Brabham won the

American Le Mans Series The American Le Mans Series (ALMS) was a sports car racing series based in the United States and Canada. It consisted of a series of Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance and sprint races, and was created in the spirit of the 24 Hours of Le M ...

in 2009 and 2010. He also competed in

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 ...

, racing for the

Brabham Motor Racing Developments Ltd., commonly known as Brabham ( ), was a British race car, racing car manufacturer and Formula One racing team. It was founded in 1960 by the Australian driver Jack Brabham and the British-Australian designer Ron Ta ...

and

Simtek Simtek (Simulation Technology) was an engineering consultancy firm and Formula One racing team. The Formula One (F1) engineering consultancy arm, Simtek Research, was founded in 1989 by Max Mosley and Nick Wirth. It originally was involved i ...

teams in 1990 and 1994, respectively. Brabham is the youngest son of three-time

world champion

Sir 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 , ...

, brother to

Geoff Brabham __NOTOC__ Geoffrey John Brabham (born 20 March 1952) is an Australian racing driver. Brabham spent the majority of his racing career in the United States. Racing career CART He raced successfully in CART early in his career, finishing 8th in ...

and

Gary Brabham Gary Thomas Brabham (born 29 March 1961) is an Australian former professional racing driver. He is the son of three-time World Formula One Champion Sir Jack Brabham and the brother of Le Mans winners Geoff and David Brabham. His solitary F1 ...

. He is also brother-in-law to

Mike Thackwell Michael Christopher Thackwell (born 30 March 1961) is a former racing driver from New Zealand, who participated in a number of prominent racing categories, including Formula 1. The sixth youngest driver ever to qualify for a Grand Prix, he parti ...

, father to

Sam Brabham Samuel Brabham is an Australian racing driver. Brabham is a third-generation racing driver; he is the son of David Brabham, nephew to Geoff Brabham, Gary Brabham, Mike Thackwell, and the grandson of three time Formula One World Champion Sir Jac ...

and uncle to

Matthew Brabham Matthew Chase Brabham (born 25 February 1994) is an Australian- American racing driver. He competes in the Trans-Am Series, driving the No. 20 Ford Mustang for Chris Dyson Racing. From 2015 to 2021, he was a regular in the Stadium Super Trucks, w ...

Early life

Brabham, who was born in

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * W ...

, London, spent his childhood in Australia. Despite his father's motor racing fame he took little interest in motor racing until after he left school. As a child he played soccer up until the age of twelve and then took up

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

when the family moved to Sydney. Growing up, Sir Jack did not force David into racing, and it was only after discovering go-karts at 17, that he became enthusiastic enough to purchase a second-hand go-kart with his next-door neighbour and to begin racing.

Motor racing career

Early career

Brabham's professional racing career began in Australia in 1983, racing karts for two years, after which he moved into the

Ford Laser The Ford Laser is a compact car, originally a subcompact car in the first three generations, which was sold by Ford in Asia, Oceania, and parts of South America and Africa. It has generally been available as a sedan or hatchback, although conv ...

"one make" series for 1985. In 1986 he switched to

Formula Ford Formula Ford, also known as F1600 and Formula F, is an entry-level class of single-seater, open-wheel formula racing. The various championships held across the world have historically been an important step for many prospective Formula One dri ...

1600 and subsequently to

Australian Formula 2 Australian Formula 2, sometimes abbreviated to AF2 or ANF2, is a "wings and slicks" formula racing category in Australia. The category is one of Australia's oldest, dating back to 1964. The current format of AF2 was introduced in 1978. Brian Shead ...

, winning the 1987 Australian Drivers' Championship in that category. The 1987 ADC was, unlike previous years, only held as a single race rather than a series of rounds and was run as a support category to the

1987 Australian Grand Prix The 1987 Australian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Adelaide on 15 November 1987. It was the sixteenth and final race of the 1987 Formula One World Championship. The 82-lap race was won by Austrian driver Gerhard Berger, who ...

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

. After starting 38th on the grid due to carburettor and electrical problems with his Ralt RT30

Volkswagen Volkswagen (VW; )English: , . is a German automotive industry, automobile manufacturer based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Established in 1937 by German Labour Front, The German Labour Front, it was revitalized into the global brand it ...

in qualifying, he caught and passed leader Rohan Onslow on lap 13 of the 15 lap race and went on to a 1.7 second victory. He also competed in the New Zealand

Formula Atlantic Formula Atlantic is a specification of open-wheel racing car developed in the 1970s. It was used in professional racing through the IMSA Atlantic Championship until 2009 and is currently primarily used in amateur racing through Sports Car Club ...

series, the American Formula Atlantic series and in the South American Formula 3 Championship during the 1987 season. A move from Australia to Europe under sponsorship from Camel in 1989 saw him joining the Bowman team and winning the British

Formula Three Formula Three (F3) is a third-tier class of open-wheel formula racing. The various championships held in Europe, Australia, South America and Asia form an important step for many prospective Formula One drivers. History Formula Three (adop ...

Championship.

Formula One career

Brabham's break into

in with the

team met with little success. He had raised a considerable amount of sponsorship to join the team bearing his family name (though it had been sold on three times since) but financial constraints hindered the team all season. While David had been hired to drive ahead of the season he requested to skip the first two races to prepare himself,

Gregor Foitek Gregor Foitek (; born 27 March 1965) is a Swiss former racing driver. He won the 1986 Swiss Formula 3 Championship. Moving up to Formula 3000 he was widely blamed for causing a race-stopping crash at Brands Hatch in 1988, and at the restart nudg ...

taking the seat instead. Ironically his brother Gary attempted to qualify for the first two rounds in the ill-fated Life before quitting; the brothers therefore both contested the 1990 season without actually entering any of the same meetings. His first outing with the team was the

1990 San Marino Grand Prix The 1990 San Marino Grand Prix (formally the 10o Gran Premio di San Marino) was a Formula One motor race held on 13 May 1990 at Imola. It was the third race of the 1990 Formula One World Championship and the first race in the European continent. T ...

where he failed to qualify. His first Formula One start came at the next race in

Monaco Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...

where his father Jack had won in

1959 Events January * January 1 – Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 – Soviet lunar probe Luna 1 is the first human-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reaches the ...

, his first championship year. In 14 races he only managed to qualify the uncompetitive Judd-engined car six times, including the last race of the year at home in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. This, and David being unable to raise the reported $3m needed to keep his place in the team, led to him being replaced at the end of the season. Brabham joined the

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 ...

Jaguar team in 1991 and also in that year won the

Spa 24 Hours The 24 Hours of Spa is an endurance racing event for cars held annually since 1924 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Stavelot, Belgium. It is currently sponsored by CrowdStrike. History The Spa 24 Hours was conceived by Jules de Their and ...

driving a Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R alongside

Naoki Hattori is a motoring journalist and racing driver from Japan. After he won the Japanese Formula 3 championship in 1990, he failed to pre-qualify for two Formula One Grands Prix with Coloni in 1991 as a late-season replacement for Pedro Chaves. He ra ...

and Anders Olofsson. Brabham returned to Formula One in with the under-funded

team after his father bought shares in the team. The second seat was to be filled by paying drivers, with

Roland Ratzenberger Roland Walter Ratzenberger (; 4 July 1960 – 30 April 1994) was an Austrian racing driver, who competed in Formula One at three Grands Prix in . Born and raised in Salzburg, Ratzenberger began his racing career as a protégé of Walter Lechn ...

taking the first five races before

Jean-Marc Gounon Jean-Marc Gounon (born 1 January 1963) is a French racing driver. He raced in 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 Fédérati ...

took over. The S941 chassis was overweight, used a fully manual gearbox as opposed to the semi-automatic types used by most teams and inferior wire-spring Cosworth HB customer engines. Despite this Brabham qualified for every round of the series. The team suffered the blow of the death of Roland Ratzenberger during qualifying for the

San Marino Grand Prix The San Marino Grand Prix () was a Formula One championship race which was run at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari in the town of Imola, near the Apennine Mountains, Apennine mountains in Italy, between 1981 and 2006. It was nam ...

. Traditionally the other team driver would withdraw in such a situation, but seeing the demoralisation around him, Brabham decided to race on, only to crash out after a suspension failure of his own. In Ratzenberger's memory the team made a collective decision to see out the season, with Brabham's strong leadership often cited as a key factor. While the Simtek was uncompetitive he won considerable acclaim for his determination and for gradually improving the speed of the underfunded package, also handily out-performing his various teammates.

Touring Cars

Brabham quit

at the end of that year to begin

touring car racing Touring car racing is a motorsport road racing competition that uses race-prepared touring cars. It has both similarities to and significant differences from stock car racing, which is popular in the United States. While the cars do not move a ...

– while he wanted to help Simtek the salary offered by the BMW works team was too good to ignore. 1995 in a

BTCC The British Touring Car Championship (BTCC), officially known as the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship for sponsorship reasons, is a touring car racing series held each year in the United Kingdom, currently organised and administered by ...

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 ...

was not a success, but subsequent successes included winning the 1996

JGTC All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (JGTC) is a grand touring car racing series that began in 1993. Originally titled as the , the series was renamed to Super GT in 2005. It was the top level of sports car racing in Japan. The series was s ...

GT500 championship in

McLaren F1 GTR The McLaren F1 GTR is the racing variant of the McLaren F1 sports car first produced in 1995 for grand touring style racing, such as the BPR Global GT Series, FIA GT Championship, JGTC, and British GT Championship. It was powered by the na ...

(so far the only non-Japanese team car to win this), and the

1997 AMP Bathurst 1000 The 1997 AMP Bathurst 1000 was the 38th running of the annual Bathurst 1000 touring car race. It was held on 5 October 1997 at the Mount Panorama Circuit just outside Bathurst in New South Wales, Australia. It was the first Bathurst 1000 r ...

in its

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 ...

era. 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 ...

at Bathurst with brother Geoff, the pair were flagged in 2nd but were elevated to the win soon after the finish when their 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 ...

were disqualified, the team making an error at the last pit stop by not doing a driver change and leaving Baird in the car for the run home, not realising that he would exceed his allowed driving time before the race ended. He won the Professional Sports Car Championship in the United States with the

Panoz Panoz is an American manufacturer of Luxury car, luxury Sports car, sports automobiles founded in 1989 as Panoz Auto Development by Don Panoz, Dan Panoz, son of Don Panoz (1935 – 2018). The company has also been extensively involved in profes ...

racing team in 1998, and the 1999

Petit Le Mans Petit Le Mans (French language, French for ''Little Le Mans'') is a sports car racing, sports car Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance race held annually at Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia, United States. The race has been held for a durat ...

race also with Panoz.

GT racing

Brabham joined Sumo Power GT for the

2011 FIA GT1 World Championship The 2011 FIA GT1 World Championship season was the second season of the SRO Group's FIA GT1 World Championship, an auto racing series for grand tourer cars complying with Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) GT1 regulations. The cham ...

, teaming with

Jamie Campbell-Walter Jamie Oliver Campbell-Walter is a British professional racing driver. He was born in Oban, Scotland on 16 December 1972. He won the FIA GT Championship in 2000 and took a World Endurance Championship title in 2013 as an Aston Martin Racing ...

in a Nissan GT-R. The duo finished 10th in the driver's championship. He will join the

Blancpain Endurance Series The GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup, formerly for sponsorship reasons the Blancpain Endurance Series from 2011 to 2015 and Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup from 2016 to 2019, is a sports car racing series developed by SRO Motorsports G ...

in 2012, driving a

McLaren MP4-12C The McLaren MP4-12C, later rebranded as the McLaren 12C, is a sports car produced by the British carmaker McLaren Automotive. Manufactured between 2011 and 2014 and designed by Frank Stephenson, the MP4-12C was available as both a coupe and a ...

for

United Autosports United Autosports is a sports car racing team based in Wakefield, England, United Kingdom, founded by businessman Zak Brown and former driver Richard Dean (racing driver), Richard Dean. United Autosports has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans (LMP2 Cl ...

Sports car racing

Since 1999 he has been a regular in the

(ALMS), having raced for teams such as

and

Prodrive Prodrive is an England, English motorsport and advanced engineering group based in Banbury, Oxfordshire. History Prodrive was founded in 1984 by Ian Parry and David Richards (motorsport executive), David Richards. Prodrive sold its 51% s ...

Ferrari 550 Maranello The Ferrari 550 Maranello (''tipo'' F133) is a front-engine V12 2-seat grand tourer built by Ferrari from 1996 to 2002. The 550 Maranello marked Ferrari's return to a front-engine, rear-wheel drive layout for its 2-seater 12-cylinder model, 23 y ...

. He won the Sebring 12-hour race in 2005. In Australia, he has contested the

Bathurst 24 Hour The Bathurst 24 Hour was an endurance race for GT and production cars held at the Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, New South Wales in 2002 and 2003. Only two races were held before the collapse of the management organisation PROCAR. Both r ...

race and continued to make occasional appearances in the

Bathurst 1000 The Bathurst 1000 (known for sponsorship reasons as the Repco Bathurst 1000) is a Touring car racing, touring car race held annually on the Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. It is currently run as part of the Supe ...

. Brabham has won a total of 23 ALMS events across all four classes in the series. He is a two-time champion in the series, winning the LMP1 title in 2009 and LMP title in 2010. In 2003, Brabham won first-in-class (4th overall) with

Multimatic Motorsports Multimatic Motorsports is the competition arm of Multimatic's Special Vehicle Operations division. Founded in 1992, the team has competed in numerous sports car racing series, including the Michelin Pilot Challenge, IMSA SportsCar Championship, a ...

at the 24 Hours of Daytona, the Daytona Prototype category's inaugural race. Brabham finished second at the

2003 24 Hours of Le Mans The 2003 24 Hours of Le Mans () was a non-championship 24-hour automobile endurance race from 14 to 15 June 2003 at the Circuit de la Sarthe near Le Mans, France for teams of three drivers each entering Le Mans Prototype and Grand Touring ...

driving for Bentley. In 2005 he started the first of four consecutive Le Mans starts racing Aston Martin DBR9's. He finished ninth overall and third in the GT1 Class for

Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin Racing is a British auto racing team established in 2004 as a partnership between automobile manufacturer Aston Martin and engineering group Prodrive. The partnership was initially created for the purpose of returning Aston ...

. At the

2006 24 Hours of Le Mans 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics A six-sided polygon is a hexagon, one of the three regular polygons capable of tiling the plane. A hexagon a ...

, Brabham scored a fourth in the GT1 category (ninth overall) driving for Russian Age Racing. Brabham won the GT1 class of the

2007 24 Hours of Le Mans The 75th 24 Hours of Le Mans (French: ''75e 24 Heures du Mans'') was a 24-hour automobile endurance race for Le Mans Prototype and Grand Touring cars, which took place at the Circuit de la Sarthe, near Le Mans, France, from 16 to 17 June 200 ...

and again in the

2008 24 Hours of Le Mans The 2008 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 76th Grand Prix of Endurance, taking place on 14–15 June 2008 at the Circuit de la Sarthe, Le Mans, France, organised by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). The test day was on June 1. The race was atten ...

driving for

. Driving for

Peugeot Peugeot (, , ) is a French automobile brand owned by Stellantis. The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was established in 1810, making it the oldest car company in the world. On 20 November 1858, Émile Peugeot applie ...

, he won the

2009 24 Hours of Le Mans The 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans () was the 77th Grand Prix of Endurance, an endurance racing (motorsport), endurance auto racing, auto race run over 24 hours. It took place at the Circuit de la Sarthe, Le Mans, France, and was organised by the Aut ...

outright with co-drivers

Alexander Wurz Alexander Georg Wurz (; born 15 February 1974) is an Austrian former racing driver, motorsport executive and businessman, who competed in Formula One between and . In endurance racing, Wurz is a two-time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in ...

and

Marc Gené Marc Gené i Guerrero (born 29 March 1974) is a Spanish professional racing driver. He is best known as a tester for Williams Grand Prix Engineering, Williams and Scuderia Ferrari, Ferrari in Formula One, Minardi Formula One driver and factory ...

driving a

Peugeot 908 HDi FAP The Peugeot 908 HDi FAP is a sports prototype racing car built by the French automobile manufacturer Peugeot to compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race, starting in 2007 and eventually winning in 2009. This effort, in development sinc ...

. He joined brother Geoff as a Le Mans winner with his older brother having also won for Peugeot in

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

. It also saw him join his father and older brother as an outright winner at Le Mans with father Jack having won the only

French Grand Prix The French Grand Prix (), formerly known as the Grand Prix de l'ACF (Automobile Club de France), is an auto race held as part of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile's annual Formula One World Championship. It is one of the oldest ...

held at the

Bugatti Circuit The Circuit des 24 Heures du Mans, also known as Circuit de la Sarthe (after the 1906 French Grand Prix triangle circuit) located in Le Mans, Sarthe, France, is a semi-permanent motorsport Race track, race course, chiefly known as the venue fo ...

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 6 – Vietnam War: United States Marine Corps and Army of ...

. David Brabham became only the fourth Australian driver to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans following

Bernard Rubin Bernard Rubin (6 December 1896 – 27 June 1936) was an Australian racing driver and pilot who was a member of the " Bentley Boys" team at the Bentley Motor Company and winner of the 1928 24 Hours of Le Mans. Personal life The son of Austra ...

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 ...

Vern Schuppan Vernon John Schuppan (born 19 March 1943) is an Australian former motor racing driver. Schuppan drove in various categories, participating in Formula One, the Indianapolis 500 and most successfully in sports car racing. Although he considers ...

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 older brother Geoff in 1993. Brabham won the 2009 and 2010

LMP championship, driving for

Highcroft Racing Highcroft Racing was an American auto racing team based out of Danbury, Connecticut and founded by driver Duncan Dayton in 1989. Initially founded for Dayton's involvement in historic motorsport, specifically the restoration and preparation of cl ...

. For 2012, he will compete in the

FIA World Endurance Championship The FIA World Endurance Championship, abbreviated as WEC, is a world championship for automobile endurance racing organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) and sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The se ...

in a JRM Racing

Honda Performance Development Honda Racing Corporation USA (HRC US), formerly Honda Performance Development, Inc. (HPD), is a subsidiary of American Honda Motor Co. which was established in 1993 and is based in Santa Clarita, California. It is the technical operations cente ...

ARX-03a.

Project Brabham

In the Autumn of 2014, Project Brabham was announced as an innovative and new way of setting up a motor racing team. The project is aimed at integrating the public and fans with the team. The initial start-up of the project was run via crowdfunding through the Indiegogo portal, where members of the public and fans alike could become part of the team. ″The money from the first phase of crowdfunding has been used to build this first stage Brabham-Digital website. We also created the all-important investor prospectus, which is vital in searching for and securing the investment required to build and launch both the team and Brabham-Digital platform" The project is still gathering much needed investment to get the team onto the track with the aim to become part of the FIA World Endurance championship. "Our complete focus is now on finding and signing the investors and partners that will be vital in securing the investment required to make this vision a reality. When that investment is secured, the full Brabham-Digital platform will be developed and built, evolving into a much more engaging and powerful engine, divided into the three different knowledge sharing and e-learning platforms."

Brabham Automotive

Brabham launched

Brabham Automotive Brabham Automotive was an Australian automaker launched by David Brabham and Australian investor group, Fusion Capital in May 2018. Brabham Automotive was based in Adelaide, South Australia, with representation also in the United Kingdom. Its ...

in May 2018. Its first product is the

Brabham BT62 The Brabham BT62 is a mid-engine Track day, track-day car produced by Australian car manufacturer Brabham Automotive. It was introduced in 2018 with deliveries expected to start at the end of that year. A planned production of only 70 cars is int ...

. Brabham drove the car on its racing debut at

Brands Hatch Brands Hatch is a motor racing circuit in West Kingsdown, Kent, England, United Kingdom. Originally used as a grasstrack motorcycle circuit on farmland, it hosted 12 runnings of the British Grand Prix between 1964 and 1986 and currently hosts ...

on 9 and 10 November, participating in

Britcar Britcar is an endurance sports car racing and touring car racing series in the United Kingdom. It was formed in 1997, as a result of a discussion in a Nürburgring bar between Willie Moore and James Tucker. Folklore has it that James Tucker and J ...

's annual 'Into the Night' races. He was joined in the car by Will Powell. He drove the car home to victory at Brands Hatch as a remarkable win, the Brabham BT62's first ever race and win and Brabham Automotive's first car and win. In a post-race interview he referred to his father's win at the 1966 British Grand Prix who won in a

Brabham BT19 The Brabham BT19 is a Formula One racing car designed by Ron Tauranac for the British Brabham team. The BT19 competed in the and Formula One World Championships and was used by Australian driver Jack Brabham to win his third World Championsh ...

Family

Brabham's two older brothers Geoff and

Gary Gary may refer to: *Gary (given name), a common masculine given name, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name Places ;Iran * Gary, Iran, Sistan and Baluchestan Province ;United States *Gary (Tampa), Florida *Gary, Ind ...

also pursued motor racing careers. His wife Lisa (sister of

) also raced. His son

and nephew

now race in junior formulae. Lisa Brabham () was born in in

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

and moved with her family to

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

, Western Australia at an early age. The family then moved to

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

in 1976 when she was eleven. She first drove a racing car, a Renault 5 Cup, aged 21 through her father (Ray Thackwell)'s business connections. After one season in Renault 5, she switched to the

Honda CRX Challenge commonly known as just Honda, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate automotive manufacturer headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in October 1946 by Soichiro Honda, Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer sin ...

with Edenbridge Racing. She raced in the British Rover GTi Championship in 1992. Brabham and Thackwell married in 1993. She was still racing in 1994 but appears to have retired soon after. They have two sons – Sam and Finn.

Racing record