The Brabham BT18 that’s stormed the Derek Bell Cup

“We never thought all these years later I would have the opportunity to race a Brabham at Goodwood,” he stated, though Goodwood is a place this car should feel at home.

The BT18’s first race came here at the Motor Circuit, in the second round of the 1966 Formula 2 Championship. Despite missing the first round, the car went on to win 11 of the 12 races it was entered into by Jack Brabham, Denny Hulme and Chris Irwin — a perfect record blemished only by a runners-up finish from Brabham and a retirement from Irwin at the final round at Brands Hatch.

Hibberd’s model lived a previous life as Chris Irwin’s challenger in that year’s Formula 3 Championship. Weighing around 400kg, it was equipped with a 1.0-litre Ford engine and a Hewland four-speed gearbox. “Brabhams were good because they were good customer cars in period; they fitted everybody; they had lots of adjustability,” he explained. 

As a feat of engineering, Brabham’s car followed in a similar vein to its contemporaries. “Like all of the cars of the period, it's nice and simple. They were quite clever with the bits and pieces they were doing to it, but it was just a good single seater racing car that used lots of components from the road with the engines, the front uprights. But then they used lots of their own bits and pieces that they made.”

Hibberd enjoys driving the car now as much as Brabham must have done 60 years ago — “especially at Goodwood,” he added. “The circuit is great. It's nice because it's a traditional circuit for these cars, it's fast and flowing so it's quite a lot of fun.” But for him, it’s just as much about keeping the legacy of the era alive, maintaining these Formula 3 cars to be fit and race-ready decades later.

“It's nice that [the cars] get remembered,” Hibberd reflected, “and the grid for the Derek Bell Cup will have quite a few in them. There’s lots of people like us that keep them going. They're great little cars to work on, but they can be time consuming to get them right.

“Sometimes you do think of all the people that have driven these things before, but you're just concentrating on the work. We're concentrating on trying to find the best out of them that we can.”

Hibberd seems to know what he’s doing, though. The BT18 has been in his care since 2015, and with three victories in the Derek Bell Cup — a race for 1,000cc F3 cars built between 1964-70 — he has plenty of experience under his belt. For him, a lot of the enjoyment comes from the mental challenge of single-seater racing. “It's just you and your own thoughts for 25 minutes, which is most of the time thinking ‘how am I going to get past him?’”

Ahead of the 83^rd Members’ Meeting, one of the things Hibberd is most looking forward to is meeting the crowds. “It's always nice to talk to people. Actually, these test days are a lot of fun as well, because we get to meet lots of people. Today we've had lots of people walking around and talking to us, asking us questions — you get some real enthusiasts here!”

It’s a shared passion that has the power to inspire the next generation to discover motorsport’s magical past. Hibberd will be happily joined at the Members’ Meeting this year by his six-year-old daughter; perhaps she, too, will enjoy a life-changing experience, just as her father did with Jack Brabham all those years ago.

The 83rd Members' Meeting presented by Audrain Motorsport takes place on the 18th & 19th April 2026. Tickets are limited, with only Sunday admission remaining. Saturday tickets, weekend passes and grandstand passes are now sold out. 

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Photography by Joe Harding.