Extract from ABC News
Updated
Sir Jack Brabham, a three-time Formula One world drivers’ champion and icon of world motorsport, has died.
The Australian won the championship in 1959, 1960 and 1966 – the final time in a car of his own construction.Sir Jack Brabham
- Triple Formula One world champion - 1959, 1960, 1966
- 14 Grand Prix victories
- 13 pole positions
- Australian of the Year in 1966
- Awarded the Order of the British Empire in 1967
- Knighted for his services to motor sport in 1979
- Only F1 driver to win championship in car of his own construction
- Contested 126 Grand Prix from 1955 to 1970
After serving in the air force during World War II, Brabham started his own engineering firm buying and selling second-hand cars.
He began racing a short time later, racing midget cars on dirt tracks. He told Australian Story in 2009: "I managed to win the third race I started in, and never looked back from there."
Brabham travelled to Europe in 1955 and before long he was building his own cars – revolutionising the sport by shifting the engine from the front of the vehicle to the back.
In 1959 he won the first of his three championships, famously running out of fuel in the last race and pushing his car to the finish.
In 1966 he became the first driver to win the championship in a car he had built himself – the BT19. He won the constructors’ championship that year, and again in 1967.
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