In many sports, lead participants and World Champions are routinely called ‘a gentleman’ of their chosen profession.
There are some noticeable exceptions in Motor Racing, most recently Ayton Senna or even Michael Schumacher probably missed out on that title.
But, while on the track, there was certainly someone else. Sir Jack Brabham AO OBE, (2nd April 1926 – 19th May 2024), he was not called Black Jack for nothing.
Even out of the car he was known for being quiet, often staring, sometimes uncomfortably so.
But I must say, I never found that. Jack Brabham, was one of my first customers. Or rather his dealerships in South London were. Normally, I would work closely with the Director of his UK garages, Brian Fowler, – who certainly was a gentleman – but on a couple of occasions met the great man himself, even going for lunch.
And, he was polite, professional and interested in what we did for his company, I was always trying to spin the conversation around, looking for reminiscences about his time behind the wheel, either in a Cooper or one of his own cars. But thanks to both Brian and Jack himself it always returned to the sales calls we were making and the present state of the Motor Trade.
In 1966, he became the only man to win the Formula One World Championship is his own car, one that he helped build with his own hands. One of three he would claim before he retired from F1.
That is certainly a huge achievement, and one that I cannot even imagine ever happening again.
If he was English, I would say he had that Bulldog spirit on the track, but he would probably hit me as a staunchly, and rightly, proud Australian. There are only two drivers remembered for pushing their car over the finishing line of an F1 race.
Brabham, in 1959 pushed his Cooper the final 400 yards of the American Grand Prix, after it had run out of petrol. One of the many steps to his first world title that year.
The eventual winner, Bruce McLaren even felt, after the race, that Jack had gifted him the win.
(The other World Champion to famously push his own car was Nigel Mansell, also in the American Grand Prix, in Dallas in 1984).
So we say happy birthday Jack. A hero when racing formula one cars needed you to be a hero, It was certainly a pleasure.