Brabham Voices Part 2: The Phew!

“We did huge hours,” says John Muller, Jack’s replacement for ‘Hughie’ Absalom, who was tempted away by Team Lotus to help its 1967 Indy 500 programme. “At other teams we had worked later and later at night and tended to get in later and later the next morning.

“Using our experience, at Brabham we all agreed to start at 8am every day and work out our own hours: [chief mechanic] Roy Billington tended to knock off at about 9pm; I knocked off at 10-11pm; but Cary Taylor [Denny Hulme’s number one] would go through to 1am. That way we ensured that none of us ran out of steam and could keep up that pace for six solid months.”

Though time – and money – was tight, the Brabhams took the team on holiday to Corsica in 1967.

“Ours was a very close relationship,” says Bob Ilich, number two mechanic to Hulme – once he had completed his engine duties, that is. “We were a family. There were only five of us. Cary and I lived in a rented house with Roy and we worked and socialised together for two years and never had a bad word.

“Jackie Stewart later said that our team, to win those two world championships, was excellent.”

Champion constructor Brabham made it a double-double in 1967, with the consistent Hulme crowned champion this time. Jack was consistent, too, and matched his team-mate’s brace of GP wins, but fell five points (net) short.

“As Denny’s chief mechanic the season became demanding when politics became involved,” says Taylor. “In a small team where the boss was also the number one driver my loyalties became somewhat divided between what Jack said and what Denny wanted. Sometimes there was discreet manipulation of parts to ensure that Denny had the best possible chance on race day.

“Jack was tough to work for but would always acknowledge you in the workshop, even if he didn’t need to stop and talk. He was a deep thinker and because at times he appeared consumed by his own thoughts he was perhaps unfairly called ‘Black Jack’. His best strength in business and engineering was his calm demeanour and clear decision-making.”

Adds Muller: “It was never showy. It was just practical and down to earth, with everything thought about very thoroughly. Jack only got really involved with the cars if there were technical issues. If there were a problem he would be there helping solve it.

“And because I was on his car we did a lot of development work together. Aerodynamics was one of things he was delving into and we would go to airfields and cover a car in tufts of wool to check the airflow.

A mid-season switch to the smaller and nimbler F2-based BT24 helped keep the team competitive against the Lotus 49 and its game-changing Cosworth DFV.

“Its simplicity, reliability and flexibility of its tubular chassis was a big plus as most of the all-nighters we did were just to keep the engines alive,” says Taylor.

Adds Ilich: “Our biggest problem was that we were trying to do R&D at the same time as going racing. We didn’t know how long our engines would last or what would break. A new one would arrive at the airport – and sometimes they’d be all right and sometimes they were no good at all.

“So we decided that if we didn’t rebuild them we didn’t want to race them. And we rebuilt them after every race. By the end of 1967, engine and car were bullet proof.

“But I was buggered! Black around the eyes from working day and night.

“My father wanted to know if I was coming home to help with our family business or not? Meanwhile, a new team and a new [four-valve] Repco engine, which I knew nothing about, was coming together. As it turned out, going home was the best thing I could have done because F1 in 1968 didn’t go as well as the previous two years.

“At end of 1967, John Muller said that we should start our own preparation company. But I had had enough of the late nights.

“Us five mechanics used to be on a split of 10 per cent of the winnings, and with that I bought my brand new Brabham BT21B and, from Cosworth, a lovely 1,500cc SCB engine that Jack had told me about. I won our state championship with that car and engine.

“It was like a fairy story to do what I did, from a kid just dreaming about it.”

Brabham Racing Organisation, which had relocated from its cramped New Haw HQ to Guildford towards the end of 1966, was, however, splintering under the strain.

“We started building an Indycar, myself and a couple of other guys over from Lotus,” says Muller. “I had met my future wife around that time and once a week I would leave at 7.30pm so that we could go out together. But I started to feel that I was letting the team down and not pulling my weight, and I decided to give it up.

“I did F2 and the Tasman Series with Frank Williams and Piers Courage, but after that I stayed home. I had finished with motor racing.

“People who shift continents to have a go at something often end up being successful because they have a higher level of commitment. I was being paid £20 a week and it cost me £90 one-way to go to England. The journey is the first test.

“But New Zealand had a can-do attitude. We had lots of old cars and you learned to make do and mend, how to patch things up. We didn’t have strong unions and so everybody did everything. That helped me, too.”

The ‘pull’ tugged both ways, however, and Muller’s compatriots, Hulme, Kerr and Taylor –“a breath of fresh air after Brabham” – and business manager Phil Kerr moved to McLaren for 1968.

Welshman Absalom joined them later: “Bruce McLaren was heavily influenced by Jack, but it was different at McLaren in that they were all young, whereas Jack and [chief designer] Ron Tauranac were half a generation up on us. Bruce liked a good time.

“Also he had the ability of knowing the guys he wanted, and there was never any jumping from one team to another while I was there.”

Bruce’s death and Jack’s retirement in 1970 would leave their teams reeling. Both survived, but whereas McLaren’s second sea change – a takeover led by an ambitious ex-Brabham mechanic called Ron Dennis – was more than a decade distant, Brabham’s lay just a year away…

Images courtesy of LAT