Australia’s finest on two wheels and four have been elevated to a new Legends status in the Australian Motor Sport Hall of Fame presented by Speedcafe.com.
Sir Jack Brabham, the three-time world drivers’ champion, and Mick Doohan, the five-time 500cc motorcycle world champion, have been handed the honour having first been inducted in 2016.
Brabham was a true pioneer in Formula 1, becoming the first Australian to win the championship in 1959 and the first to win the world championship in a rear-engined car.
Most remarkably, however, the talented engineer as well as driver is to date the only person to have ever taken the title in a car of his own construction.
Doohan, too, stands among the greats in his field having won the premier class title five times, behind only Giacomo Agostini and Valentino Rossi.
The fact that the Queenslander managed to win those championships consecutively in a streak which began two years after nearly losing his right leg, and indeed his life, in an ugly crash and botched surgery makes the feat all the more remarkable.
Doohan, in fact, had to use a bike modified to run a thumb brake owing to his inability to brake with the leg.
Having survived the 1992 incident, he finally had to call time on his career after crashing in qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix in 1999, but not before leaving a lasting impression on the sport.
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