Speedcafe.com is celebrating Brabham Week, presented by Pirtek, by highlighting an original four-part video series that was recorded with Sir Jack Brabham just a couple of months before his 2014 passing.
One of Australia’s most respected motorsport and automotive journalists, Gordon Lomas, sat down with Sir Jack at this Gold Coast home for an in-depth chat on all aspects of his career.
Today’s third episode looks at a smokescreen concocted by sponsors which encouraged Malcolm (Donald) Campbell to finally have a crack at the land speed record in his legendary Bluebird.
Sir Jack also tells the story of the 1959 Portuguese GP where he hit a telegraph post without a seatbelt and then just managed to roll out of the way of Masten Gregory who went past him at 160kph.
While that was a near miss, Sir Jack tells of an even closer call in the 1964 Indianapolis 500 where some pre-race advice about another driver helped him avoid an accident which killed both Dave McDonald and Eddie Sachs. He was convinced if he had not been warned, he would have been number three.
In tomorrow’s final episode Sir Jack recounts his extraordinary escapes in aeroplanes and when he smuggled Jim Clark out of Italy in his plane.
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