When Jack Brabham raced at the 1999 Goodwood Revival

This month, Brabham’s wonderful career will be a centrepiece celebration at the Goodwood Revival presented by Dunlop, 60 years on from his unique achievement of winning a Formula 1 World Championship in a car which carried his own name.

Prolific at Goodwood in period, the West Sussex circuit is where it all began for the Australian in terms of racing in Europe back in 1955, and barring a near-miss stroke of luck, it might have been where it all finished for him, too…

Legends assemble

Back in the late 1990s when the Revival was founded, one of the great aspects was that period heroes gained a welcome second chance to experience racing at Goodwood, and those of us too young to have seen them first time around got to witness them doing so, too.

In 1999, Brabham was absolutely in his element — and he was far from alone. Stirling Moss, Jackie Oliver, Derek Bell and more revelled in the chance to turn back the clock.

Brabham entered multiple races, just as was norm back in the late 1950s and ’60s. First up, he was reunited with a Cooper-Climax T53 ‘Lowline’, the model in which he swept to his second F1 title in 1960, in the Richmond & Gordon Trophy for 1950s Grand Prix cars. Pitched against Moss in a Maserati 250F, the pair engaged in a duel as if the previous 30-odd years hadn’t passed at all. What a treat.

Then Brabham has his first scare of the day. Driving Graeme Bryant’s AC Cobra in the RAC TT Celebration, a rear wheel departed as he accelerated on to the start/finish. No major dramas, given who we are talking about. But it was just a taster for the bigger and far more alarming drama to come.

Glover Trophy high jinks

The 3.0-litre F1 cars introduced in Goodwood’s final year of period operation never had the chance to race at the Motor Circuit, so there was a buzz when it was announced they’d be let loose at the Revival in 1999 for the Glover Trophy. Brabham, Bell and Oliver were among those who lined up for a taste of the action.

The Australian was in a BRM V12-powered McLaren M5A owned by PacWest IndyCar team owner Bruce McCaw — an original choice given that you’d have expected him to line up in a Brabham. Racing with an open-face helmet with goggles, he cut a familiar sight and was soon fully immersed, living up to his old reputation… Bell in a Ferrari 312 was forced to work hard to pass the 73-year-old when he came up to challenge. On commentary, Jackie Stewart quipped Brabham would be hard to pass on a four-lane motorway.

A big hit

Late in the race, on lap 16 of 20, Brabham was now the chaser, closing in on the Lotus 49 driven by Oliver — and again true to his period reputation, he was about to give no quarter. Dropping two wheels on to the grass in his efforts to get past at St. Mary’s was probably a tad over-ambitious; the McLaren spun out of control and backed hard into the bank on the short shute towards Lavant. To the alarm of everyone, Brabham’s arms flailed from the cockpit and his head slumped as he was briefly knocked unconscious.

To the relief of all, he quickly revived, but was transferred to hospital in nearby Chichester with some nasty injuries, especially for a man of his advanced age.

The dreaded phone call

On the other side of the Atlantic, youngest son David Brabham was busy winning Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta in a blaring front-engined Panoz.

“We had a big night celebrating, woke up in the morning and the phone rang,” David recalls. “‘Your dad’s in hospital.’ What?”

While David was quickly assured the Old Man was going to be OK, it was also clear this had been a serious accident. “It was apparently the worst he ever had in a racing car,” said David, although the crash in which he broke an ankle and was left trapped in his Brabham during a Silverstone test in 1969 was arguably worse.

“He had broken ribs, a punctured lung, cracked pelvis,” David explains of the Goodwood shunt. “He and Jackie, they were not going to give up. ‘That’s my piece of Tarmac.’ ‘No, that’s mine.’ Two into one didn’t go and off he went.”

When Lord March, now the Duke of Richmond, paid a visit to the hospital the following day, Brabham was already suggesting he’d be back to race again. But at 73, he came to realise he was pushing it. “I think that was his last race,” said David. “He just did demonstrations after that.

“When they called me, they said he was pretty beaten up but he’s fine. As soon as I got home I went to see him. Typical Jack: grin on his face — ‘Well, that was a big one!’”

Farmer takes the harvest

As for the race, Geoff Farmer claimed the laurels once it was stopped early following Brabham’s prang. Earlier on, Farmer had battled with Paul Ingram’s ex-Pedro Rodríguez BRM P126, until the ex-Jo Siffert Rob Walker Lotus 49 spun.

The eventual winner was lucky to escape from a gravel trap, then gained another dose of luck when Ingram hooked third gear instead of fifth at Fordwater, locked the BRM’s rear wheels and went off.

Thankfully, Brabham made a full recovery and enjoyed another 15 years as one of motor racing’s great elder statesmen. Even so, as the Goodwood crash in 1999 reminded us, racing drivers might get old, but they don’t really change.

Main image photography by Getty Images.

Saturday tickets and 3-Day passes for the Goodwood Revival have now sold out, and Friday and Sunday tickets are limited. 

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