Endurance (2018) - full transcript

DAVID: You kind of get
into this mindset,

when you’re in competition
for so long

and you’re doing well...

There were times
I’d catch myself and go,

“That’s not who I am.

You’re so like your father.”

There’d be something
in the back saying,

“Is this really who you are?”

["BLACK EYED BRUISER" PLAYING]

♪ If you see me
Walking down the street ♪

♪ Better get out my way ♪



♪ I'm a real king hitter ♪

♪ Always have my say ♪

♪ If you're looking
For a heavy time ♪

♪ Best you don't come around ♪

♪ Or else you'll get
Your heavy ♪

♪ Six feet of solid ground ♪

♪ I don't like trouble ♪

♪ But if trouble
Is the name of your game ♪

♪ You know where
You can find me, boy ♪

♪ Everybody knows my name ♪

♪ I'm the black eyed ♪

♪ The black eyed ♪

♪ The black eyed bruiser ♪

- [MEN CHANTING]
- [VOICE ECHOING]



MIKE: I’m standing now
in the showroom of a car dealer,

at Greenacre in Sydney.

And I suppose it’s very much
like any car dealer showroom.

Except for all these trophies
behind me.

He is a man who, in his time,
created history.

Now, he thinks
he’s coming here tonight

for a sporting interview
with his son.

And it’s right here
that I’m going to surprise them.

[MACHINE BEEPING]

CHAPLAIN: We are here to honor,
celebrate and give thanks

for the life
of Sir John Arthur Brabham,

known as Jack.

In one way or another,
Sir Jack’s life

has affected us all.

From those here
who knew him personally

and called him Grandpa,
or Dad, or husband...

to those here who shared
a lifelong friendship with Jack,

to those of us here who knew him
from a distance

and marveled
at his many achievements.

CHAPLAIN: But we’ll also hear
about Sir Jack the man,

the husband,
father and grandfather.

What made him tick.
What was really important

to him.

[RAIN PATTERING]

[PHONE DINGS]

[UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING]

Any of you boys been
in a billy-cart derby before?

ALL: Yes!

NARRATOR: Jack was like any boy
of his age,

obsessed with billy-carts.

TONY: You could either have
a steering wheel

or you could have a rope.

And what wheels you got,
well, that was up to the gods.

PRESENTER:
What do you say, Noah?

It was a great race
and the best man did win.

NARRATOR: He left school
at fifteen

to work as an apprentice
in an engineer shop.

MAN: We happened to get bits
and pieces

and improvised with them.

Cut and shuck and weld,
and do all sorts of things.

Yeah, he was from an age

when you had
a wide variety of skills.

The kind of
industrial equivalent

of the hunter-gatherer.

MAN: You could see
there was no doubt,

he was very earnest

and he was going to be
a good engineer, good boy.

TV NARRATOR: Even away
in the little-known interior,

amongst the primitive natives,

there are townships
where agents of Hitler

wait and plan for the downfall
of a country

that has sheltered them
and given them security.

ALL: ♪ Waltzing Matilda
Waltzing Matilda ♪

NARRATOR: The war interrupted
Jack’s sleepy existence,

tinkering with bikes and cars.

Every young man of fighting age

finally had a reason
for adventure.

MAN: ...the cause of liberty
and freedom.

TONY: War had started,
of course,

when he was a teenager.

NARRATOR: Jack entered the RAAF
midway through the war.

He was a mechanic
on RAAF Bowfighters,

called the "Whispering Death,"

because twin radial engines
were so quiet

that they would come in low
and then strafe the Japanese

before they even knew
what was hitting them.

[EXPLOSION]

NARRATOR: But Jack
had missed out on becoming

a hero on the front line.

MAN: ...the victim,
Australia’s manhood.

NARRATOR: He was part
of a generation of young men

who needed some kind of arena
to prove themselves

as worthy as the heroes
who had returned home,

victorious in combat.

Eerie, isn’t it?

You know what this
reminds me of? A theater.

An empty theater right now.

But it has its audience,
its cast, its drama,

its comedy,
and sometimes its tragedy too.

The spectacle here
is a moving play

on an asphalt stage
with all the props.

Producers and directors
in the wings,

the music, extras, comedians,
good guys and bad guys,

and the stars...

NARRATOR: And it was
on a road trip up north

that a friend took Jack
to his first-ever Speedway.

What he would have seen
was motorized chaos.

There were no roll-cages,
seat belts.

The helmets were made of cork.

A lot of blokes didn’t even
bother using goggles.

MAN: The driver died
of severe head injuries.

MAN: Oh, Jack?
Yes, the first time I met him

was, uh, in '48.

He, uh... was only a kid then

and he came up
with the Speedway car.

[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING]

TONY: Can you imagine
driving down a dirt road

and then having to turn left
into the corner

without hitting the brakes,
but with your foot flat

to the floor at the same time?

Well, this is what
Speedway drivers did.

I mean, all you can see now
of a racing driver

is a little bit of the top
of their head,

sort of slightly bobbing around.

In Speedway,
it’s mechanicalized warfare

of the most purest kind.

It’s wild, it’s big.

JACK: And that was my biggest
surprise on the first night,

was every other motor car
was throwing dirt in my face.

[LAUGHTER]

DAVID: My mum came from a very,
sort of, basic background.

They met and Jack was racing
in midgets.

MIKE: The lady who watched,
waited and worried,

your wife, Betty.

[TV STATIC]

What was this bloke's
name again?

[INDISTINCT CHATTER]

Sorry, Jack, mate,
I won’t let you down.

[UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING]

In the very early 1950s,

Jack took his Speedway
racing car

to a local hill-climb.

In his little, titchy
self-built Speedway car,

he blew them all into the weeds.

PRESENTER: Hairpin bends
at high speeds

call for steel wrists
and iron nerves.

Sport is somewhere
where drive, dedication,

bravery...
that’s what we celebrate.

PRESENTER: It’s a great course
for the spectators too.

You know, someone who’s fucking
brilliant at what they do

and we can cheer them on.

The organizers
actually disqualified his car

because it wasn’t fitted
with front wheel brakes...

PRESENTER: Hold everything,
he’s going over!

[LAUGHS] ...and therefore didn’t
qualify for their purposes.

PRESENTER: Not this time.

So, Jack responded typically

by fitting front wheel brakes,
taking it back there

and doing it again.

RON: Oh, it’s a Brabham '67.

It’s a long while since
I’ve seen one of these.

[RAIN PATTERING]

NARRATOR:
Ron Tauranac was racing

RALT open wheelers,

which he’d built
with his brother

in their parent’s garage.

It was clear they saw something
in each other.

Kindred spirits.

Well, he was a very good friend
of mine and we got on very well.

I’ve never been
a very social person either.

I realize it was a mistake now.

But I needed someone
to train me.

TONY: Ron and Jack were,
in some ways,

two peas in a pod.

Neither of them talked much

but they could just look at
what each other were doing

- and say, “Wow.”
- Ron designed the cars

and Dad tested them.

It was
an incredible partnership.

Jack had his two-liter
Cooper Bristol.

DOUG: And he fitted
a bigger engine

to give it more "oomph"

and he ended up corresponding
with John and Charles Cooper

of the Cooper Car Company.

NARRATOR: By the end of 1954,

Jack had experienced everything
that Speedway

and Hill-Climb had to offer.

And while he may not have yet
had his sights set

on challenging
the European legends

of motorsport,

the hobbyist from Hurstville
knew he’d be foolish

if he didn’t pursue
his clear talent

behind the wheel.

DOUG: And Jack realized
that to progress

in the motor-racing world,

he really needed
to be in Britain.

PRESENTER: When he hears
the booming tones of Big Ben,

no English-speaking visitor
feels a real stranger in London.

The chimes from Westminster
penetrate to the four corners

of the globe.

And Big Ben has become
everyone's town clock.

DOUG: When Jack first came
to the UK in 1955,

he kissed his wife goodbye

and his child goodbye,

and found himself surrounded by,
really, a fast-developing hotbed

of motor-racing development.

MAN: We, as loyal citizens,
must also do our part.

DOUG: British motor racing
had been nowhere before the war.

TV NARRATOR: Silence...

DOUG: Conditions were so bad

that there were
worse shortages here

than there had ever been
at any time.

And a number of people
just got so fed up

with this turgid, gray,
post-war Britain...

[CROWD CHANTING]

...that effectively
they said, “Oh, to hell with it.

Let’s go motor racing
and have some fun.”

[UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING]

DOUG: The British manner
of going motor racing,

was to start building
racing cars,

striving to surpass
the dominant Ferrari

and Maserati.

NARRATOR: En route to England,
Jack made the pilgrimage

to Ferrari.

And they closed the door
in his face.

He knew he probably appeared
to them like a chancer

from Down Under,

but the experience
stung him deeply

and he loved overtaking Ferrari
for the rest of his career.

Have you heard from Jack lately?

Yes, we’ve heard
a couple of times.

I rang him up after Silverstone

and we get a letter
occasionally.

MIKE: Then comes your first race
at Goodwood.

But you come
to an embarrassing halt

three laps from the finish.

What happened?

I’m afraid I ran out of petrol.

[LAUGHTER]

NARRATOR: But Jack
was quickly progressing.

In his first year in England,
he secured a seat

in the Bristol Team at Le Mans,

where 83 spectators were killed.

GRAYSON: I mean,
when we look at sport,

we’re living vicariously
through the sports stars

we’re following.

We want to see a crash

because we can go through
the whole drama of the crash,

but we’re not going to die.

We can enjoy it, you know,
we want to rubberneck it

and we want to see
that the ragged edge is there.

ANNOUNCER: Drivers sprint
for their cars

at the start of the Ireland...

NARRATOR:
Jack then took Betty to

the follow-up Sports Car Enduro

in Northern Ireland.

ANNOUNCER: Stirling Moss,
in a Mercedes,

is one of the first away

on the seven-and-a-half-mile
Dunlop Circuit.

NARRATOR: He’d only been
in the UK for six months

and he was already
wheel to wheel

with the immortals of racing.

ANNOUNCER: Caught in a trial,

Fangio Mercedes,
Hawthorn Jaguar.

NARRATOR: But it had been
a tough race for Jack.

ANNOUNCER: At this spot,
in a few ghastly seconds,

two drivers lost their lives.

NARRATOR: He and his co-driver,

Jim Meyers,

had tossed a coin to see
who would start.

His co-driver won the toss
and was incinerated

within the first few laps.

ANDREW: I have seen death
too often to believe in death.

It is not an ending,
but a withdrawal.

As one who is finishing
a long journey stills the motor,

turns off the lights,

steps from the car
and walks up the path

to the home that awaits him.

JOHN: He was fantastic
from the start.

A little wild,
but everyone could see

that he had it.

MIKE: One of the greatest names
in motor racing, from England.

This Is Your Life
has flown in John Cooper

of the famous Cooper Cars.

[APPLAUSE]

DOUG: As John Cooper said to me,

“We didn't really employ
Jack Brabham.

He just appeared in the factory
one day and became a fixture."

He’s a brilliant engineer
and he could set a car up

for a race.

He’d just pitch in
and get on with something.

MIKE: Is it true that Jack
was also a practical joker?

JOHN: Oh, yeah.

He could make you anything
from a pair of pliers

to a guided missile.

TOM: He’s just such
a natural engineer.

He looks at things
and understands so quickly

what’s wrong with them
or what’s right with them.

HUGHIE: He was one of the only
F1 drivers that probably knew

everything about the race car,

from the chassis to the engine
to the setting up.

He knew all the parts.

Well, Jack Brabham
was a remarkable man.

In a funny sort of way,
Jack never looked like

a racing driver.

I mean, Stirling Moss
looked like a racing driver,

Jim Clark looked like
a racing driver.

But it was fairly obvious,
fairly early on,

that he was a goer.

And it wasn’t really
until the Cooper Car Company

picked him up

that Jack’s feet really
hit the ground.

[ENGINES REVVING]

PAUL: This is
a "start/finish" line,

the beginning and the end.

Doesn’t make any difference
whether it’s painted on asphalt

or drawn in dirt with a stick,

it's become a symbol
of our civilization.

Sometimes I think
that a line is drawn

and then some people
get off on a corner

and figure out what the hell
they’re going to do with it.

[SERENE MUSIC PLAYING]

PAUL: The place is Europe.

Or it can be Canada,
South Africa, the United States.

But more than glamorous names
and places,

it is a state of mind,

an expression
of the ultimate in racing,

the Formula One
World Driving Championships.

The Grand Prix.

This is the top.

ANNOUNCER: There’s a strong
British contingent

at the start
of the Monaco Grand Prix.

Monaco... very small circuit

and, in the fifties,
very big cars.

ANNOUNCER: Moss and Brooks
in Van Walls,

and Collins
and Hawthorn in Ferrari.

TONY: Jack turns up
in this tiny, tiny Cooper...

MAN:
Here’s Mike Hawthorn’s Ferrari.

TONY: They’d never heard
of this guy Jack Brabham,

running third
in the Monaco Grand Prix.

ANNOUNCER: Everyone expects
a rip-roaring finish.

MIKE: The Australian’s
spectacular cornering

gave the crowds a thrill.

TONY: And he runs out of petrol.

He pushes it all the way
to the end

and made a star
out of the driver,

Jack Brabham.

He was so lethargic
in so many different ways.

And then he got
into a racing car.

ANNOUNCER:
Brabham in complete command.

Everybody was astounded
at his Speedway style.

MICHAEL: Coopers in those days
were world champions

that took on the might
of these big teams,

and my father and him
just got on so well.

Jack became a huge friend
of John Cooper's and vice versa.

One of his biggest assets,
however, um...

Oh, I’ve forgotten his name.
Uh, his engineer...

Ron Tauranac.

Lovely, lovely,
lovely, lovely guy.

RON: When I was building
racing cars, in England...

I would design
the ultimate racing car

and then backtrack it

so I could build something
that was just good enough

to beat the opposition.

GREG: So, what was the best car
that you ever made...

- in your mind?
- The one I’m going to do next.

DOUG: A lot of the modifications
that Jack wanted made

had been communicated to him

by his pen pal
back in Australia,

the engineer Ron Tauranac.

[BIRDS CHIRPING]

Jack Brabham and Ron Tauranac

just were like that.

Ron Tauranac and Jack
made a formidable team.

By remote control effectively,
from twelve thousand miles away,

Ron Tauranac was having
very sound engineering ideas

that he was communicating
to Jack.

He would come up
with some rough sketches,

he'd air-mail it
over to Australia,

Ron would have a look at it,

be on the phone,
he’d then do all the drawings.

The drawings would then
come back.

John was finding some way

of smuggling all these
modifications past his dad

without his dad noticing.

That was the great thing.

DAVID: And he’d make
the rear suspension,

or the gearbox
and the mounting and everything.

I mean, it was almost like
a secret society

with the two of them.

And it was that, sort of,
cheerful, in-house

“Let’s do this, let’s try this,”

and the sheer enthusiasm
for going racing

that enabled Cooper
to establish what became known

as the "Rear Engine Revolution."

[FANFARE]

STIRLING: My name
is Stirling Moss

and I drove all types of cars
in all types of races.

[WHIMSICAL MUSIC PLAYING]

PRESENTER:
What is it that makes a man

spend countless hours
making toy racing cars?

For the modeler is none other
than Stirling Moss,

possibly the world’s
greatest racing driver.

Here at his father’s pig farm,
in Turing, Hertfordshire,

let’s watch him relaxing
with a miniature track.

Rival in this grim struggle,
is his wife, Katie.

MIKE: You say,
that man is my ultimate goal.

Beat him
and I’ve achieved something.

STIRLING: Well, I wish you
every success

and please give your family
all the best as well.

Cheerio.

NARRATOR: The logical favorite
of the 1959 season, Moss,

no doubt had his eye
on taking out the championship.

But, on his travels,
Jack had taken a protege

under this wing for Cooper.

The young Bruce McLaren.

PRESENTER: For many years,
motor racing has been

a popular sport in New Zealand,

attracting drivers
with a taste for thrills

and mechanics
with a taste for tinkering.

DOUG: Jack was so impressed
by young Bruce

that effectively
he became his mentor.

PRESENTER: After his
wobbly efforts, Bruce decides

to stick to car racing.

He says it's safer.

Jack was the person who
made things happen for Bruce.

And in 1959, he joined Jack

to start racing regularly
at Grand Prix level.

[GENTLE GUITAR MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR:
The first race was Monaco.

It was the crown jewel
of the Grand Prix circuit

and seen as a rite of passage
for drivers.

Explaining Monte Carlo
as a racing track is, uh...

ANNOUNCER: The Monaco Grand Prix

is known as "The Race
of a Thousand Corners."

It’s a very,
very difficult circuit.

You know, 21 corners, 78 laps,

constantly coming at you,
so narrow...

You were off before
the starting flag even fell.

ANNOUNCER: And they're off!

A hundred laps
of a two-mile circuit

through the Monte Carlo streets.

A testing race
for cars and drivers.

With speed,
you stop having to be conscious.

You have to rely on instinct.

ANNOUNCER: Just watch
Moss's beautiful control

as he takes a double bend.

You are not driving
at five-tenths.

You’re driving at nine-tenths
and sometimes ten-tenths.

ANNOUNCER:
Brabham is in second place now.

TONY: Cooper finally
had an engine

that was as good
as everyone else's.

But the radiators
were blowing hot air

straight onto his feet.

He was burning up,
the pedals were red hot.

He was scared
to touch the brake.

ANNOUNCER: Stirling’s
Cooper-Climax

developed transmission trouble.

Bad luck.

NARRATOR:
And with Stirling gone,

Jack drove faster
than he ever had before.

ANNOUNCER: Last lap and
ahead of Tony Brooks' Ferrari

was Jack Brabham.

NARRATOR: Securing
his first Grand Prix race win.

This was shaping up
to be a promising season.

[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING]

[FIRE CRACKLING]

[ROCK MUSIC PLAYING]

Jack was someone
who you couldn’t

particularly predict.

ANNOUNCER: A perfect day,
a great crowd at Aintree

for the British Grand Prix.

All you would predict

is that he would do
the unpredictable.

ANNOUNCER: Jack Brabham
was driving a Cooper-Climax.

TONY: So the British Grand Prix.

He wasn’t necessarily
the fastest driver out there,

I think everyone agreed
that Stirling Moss was that.

Jack certainly was as competent
as any driver out there.

TONY: Stirling Moss, as always,
went out flat-out.

ANNOUNCER: Stirling Moss
drove his BRM superbly.

TONY: Jack started
swinging the back out,

for no other reason
than to even up the tire wear.

ANNOUNCER: Brabham shot
ahead, determined to keep

the number 12 out in front.

Stirling Moss
battled into second place.

Stirling Moss had to stop
and change his tires.

ANNOUNCER: A delay fatal
to his winning chance.

Jack kept going
and managed to win the race.

ANNOUNCER: Jack Brabham won,

covering the 225 miles

at an average
of just under 90 miles an hour.

DOUG: One of the most
extraordinary things

about Jack Brabham

was how unselfish he could be.

Jack, what a great sport
you were.

How that time in New Zealand,

you lent me
your spare back axle.

He supported and mentored people
who would likely become rivals.

I’ve known Jack for a long time

and he’s helped me,
well, 100 percent in my racing.

MIKE: You win the Monaco
and British Grand Prix.

Moss wins the Portuguese
and Italian.

Tony Brooks
takes the French and German.

TONY: Jack was one
of three people who could win

the World Championship,

and there was
just one race to go.

And strangely, it was in America

where they had never
had a Grand Prix before

and, really,
it was a second-rate track.

ANNOUNCER: The US Grand Prix
attracts the world’s

best auto-racing drivers.

MIKE: It’s December 12, 1959,
when you line up on the grid.

TONY: As always, Stirling Moss
went flying out of the gate.

ANNOUNCER: The bumpy track
was more than just a rumor.

But he over-cooked it.

Yeah, it was something funny
with the gearbox.

ANNOUNCER: ...and Australia’s
Jack Brabham

and New Zealander Bruce McLaren
in the lead.

TONY: Jack led most of the race

with Bruce McLaren
tucked in behind him.

MIKE: The championship
is in your grasp,

and then two corners
from the end,

it happens again,
didn’t it, Jack?

He ran out of fuel.

I run out of petrol. [LAUGHS]

He’s 800 meters from the finish.

MIKE: You decide to finish,
by pushing your car

uphill to the finishing line.

TONY: Bruce was about
to stop behind him

and Jack said,
“No, get on with it.

If you win,
I win the Championship.”

MIKE: You crossed the line,
surrounded by a police escort

and screaming fans.

DOUG: Jack
and the little Coopers

had beaten Ferrari and Maserati

and put them squarely
in their place.

TONY: First Australian
to be World Champion.

The first man
in a rear-engine car

to be World Champion.

He was a pretty happy boy.

[TV STATIC]

[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: Jack had well
and truly arrived.

He’d been anointed
into the "Realm of Champions"

and 1960 was now a chance
to further establish himself

among the heroes of motorsport.

MAN: Fangio and Ferrari,
Moss and Farina.

TONY: At the end of the day,
to go fast,

you need some serious gonads
between your legs.

[ENGINES REVVING]

Men like drama, don’t they?

You know, they love to do
everything at its most risky.

[PROPELLERS WHIRRING]

So, they start the 1960 season

with the 1959 car.

Charlie Cooper,
the old man, says,

“No, I don’t want to spend money
when we’re winning.”

NARRATOR: But Jack knew
they’d have to innovate

to stay ahead
of Ferrari and Lotus.

And he and John Cooper,
and Bruce McLaren

all worked on this new car,
the Cooper Lowline.

NARRATOR: Jack’s instincts
were right,

with Bruce winning Argentina
and Jack picking up a win

at the Dutch Grand Prix.

MAN: What are your thoughts
when you’re driving

a fast car like this, Jack?

JACK: Well, Vic,

it’s very exciting
driving a motor car like this.

GRAYSON: Empirically,
what a car is,

it’s a vehicle with an engine
and four wheels

that carries passengers.

But, of course, it's an
incredibly potent symbol.

A car isn’t just this thing
they drive around in.

It is them.

MARK: When the helmet
does go on,

and you’re
in fighter pilot mode,

and man and machine on the limit
going into combat,

you’re very much
at one with the car.

Spa was a particularly
difficult one.

ANNOUNCER: Stirling Moss
and Jack Brabham, number two.

Ditches, barbed wire fences
beside the track.

Basically, every hazard
you could build

into a racetrack

was there at Spa.

PRESENTER: It’s rare for
anything to go wrong so early,

but a triple crash came here.

Two drivers die in the race.

ANNOUNCER:
Brabham, now faster than Moss...

And the race kept going
and Jack won.

PRESENTER: Brabham, however,
roared away to victory

in the second heat...

NARRATOR: Despite the tragedy,
Jack kept his focus razor sharp

for his next outing at Reims.

ANNOUNCER:
From the very first lap,

it’s an all-out battle

between the British
and Italian machines.

NARRATOR:
With the lead exchanging

in impossibly tight
slipstream battles.

ANNOUNCER: Brabham’s Cooper
and Phil Hill’s Ferrari

battle desperately to get a...

For men, the traffic
is the last Serengeti.

It’s where they’re in conflict
with others.

They’re chasing...

They’re having to negotiate
through the forest

of the streets.

You know, so all the kind
of ancient, primal, instincts,

you can play it out in a car.

ANNOUNCER: It’s Jack Brabham
who gets the upper hand,

streaking ahead for his third
consecutive Grand Prix victory.

NARRATOR: And after Reims,
Jack made it five in a row...

ANNOUNCER: Brabham’s
Cooper-Climax well in front.

NARRATOR: ...with wins at
the British and Portuguese

Grand Prix.

ANNOUNCER: One more
for an overcrowded mantelpiece.

NARRATOR: He’d done it.

Back to back
World Championships.

MIKE: Moss, Hawthorn, Collins...

Jack, you faced
an impressive rollcall

of racing greats.

[CROWD CHEERING]

[PIANO MUSIC PLAYING]

In 1961 he branched out.

Ron Tauranac joined him
in England.

He gave me a thousand pounds

to move the family to England

for a year’s trial.

Although he’d won back to back
World Championships

in Cooper cars,

some rival car constructors

were actually building
more sophisticated cars,

with greater
performance potential

than Cooper, really,
could shake a stick at.

PRESENTER: ...to design each
year as perfect and advanced

a piece of engineering
as science can devise.

I just always concerned
with what I was doing

and staying ahead
of the terrible opposition.

JOHN: This is where we build
our racing cars.

And there are literally
hundreds of component parts

that go to building
a racing car.

DOUG: It’s a brutal comparison

but Cooper have been described

as a bunch of blacksmiths
meeting in Chapman

and Lotus a bunch
of technologists.

May your success continue,
and good luck for 1961.

Thank you, Vic.

[ELECTRONIC MUSIC PLAYING]

PAUL: I’ve been up to Frisco
for the Sprints,

out to Charlotte
to see the Stocks,

into the Glen
for the Grand Prix,

Indy for the Drag
and for the "Big One."

I paid 200 million dollars

to sit with 40 million fans.

I’ve eaten twenty tons
of hot dogs

and drunk a Rose Bowl
full of pop.

I’m this year’s spectator,
"Race Fan USA."

PRESENTER: When the balloons
go up beside the track

at Indianapolis,

spectators know it’s time

for the start of the world’s
most chancy motor race.

DAVID: In 1961, at Indianapolis,

Jack went there with
his Formula One Cooper-Climax,

which absolutely outraged
and upset the ultra-conservative

American Speedway fraternity.

Brabham, what is the nature
of the fuel used?

NARRATOR:
The Indy regulators came

to watch the comically small car

with its engine
in the wrong spot.

They had the engine in the back,

which was complete
anathema to them.

But, the second thing,
it was painted green!

And at Indianapolis,
green cars were killer cars.

'Cause they’re a threat
to my territory,

to my very being

that is my shiny,

you know, phallus
that I’m driving along in.

PRESENTER: The big thrill
wasn’t long in coming.

A six-car pileup.

NARRATOR: But within
a couple of years,

all Indy 500 cars
were rear-engined.

He showed
that Formula One technology

could work at Indianapolis.

JOHN: After Jack won
the World Championship,

he told me he had an invite
to go and see Mr. Ferrari.

So he flew down to Italy

and was interviewed
by Mr. Ferrari.

And he said
he had quite a good offer.

But he went home
and thought about it.

He said, "I turned it down."

He said, “Because,
the only reason that Colin

and Bruce and myself

went racing was to beat Ferrari,

and I couldn’t
possibly join them.”

NARRATOR: Enzo Ferrari
once told John Cooper

that he'd never build
a rear-engine race car.

But, in '61, he did
and it was a killer.

DAVID: During the heart
of that season,

Ferrari just ran riot

with their V6-engined,
shark-nosed cars.

Right, cue him.

So, I’ve flown back from Rome
to bring you

these special pictures

direct from the racetrack
at Monza.

NARRATOR:
One of the few highlights

was when Jack
was leading at Monza.

Congratulations, Phil.

What sort of a race
did you have?

Peter, this was
a real tough one.

NARRATOR: But as on so many
occasions that season,

he broke down.

PHIL: This Monza track
has got some steep bankings.

It’s got fast straights,
hairpins, the lot.

PRESENTER:
Then in the second lap,

approaching the curve

on the inner section
of the road circuit,

it happened.

Hold it. Hold it, Mike.

We’ve got the pictures
on "three" in the wrong order.

Can you check them?
It should be Phil Hill first,

then the banking,
then the checkered...

[EXPLOSIONS]

[SCREAMING]

PRESENTER: von Trips' Ferrari,

after touching Clark's Lotus,

had crashed through a fence
and rebounded.

Wolfgang von Trips lay dead

and death came to 13 spectators

in this appalling crash.

MAN: All right. Magi, sorry.

Just give me a minute,
I'll fix it.

Jolly good. Let's go again then.

[ENGINES REVVING]

MAN: Do you think
the combination

of Brabham and Cooper

is going to bring you

the World Championship
hat-trick this year?

PRESENTER: It was the Ferraris
who triumphed once more.

NARRATOR: And after back
to back championship wins,

Jack had well and truly
fallen back to earth.

DOUG: By the end of
the 1961 season,

Jack fully appreciated

that many of the things
that he wanted to do

would be impossible

against the increasing
conservatism of Charlie Cooper.

RON: When I went to England,
I worked for Jack's company

during normal working hours.

And overnight,

I spent the time designing
our first Formula One car.

They were building
a Formula Junior car

for a private customer.

RON: Which was really mine,

I wasn't paid for that at all.
I just drew it in a night.

And the opportunity was there
to go independent.

[UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING]

PRESENTER: Surrounded
by English countryside

is the racing car factory
of Jack Brabham.

JACK: Well, I came over,
principally, in the first place,

to go motor racing.

And after motor racing
for quite a few years,

the interest
in the mechanical side of it

has always been very great.

And the obvious answer was to
eventually build our own cars.

DOUG: A friend of theirs
pointed out

that the French pronunciation
of MRD, merde,

was very rude.

In French, MRD means merde,

which is covered all over
in shit.

...and said, you know,
you have the perfect name.

The perfect marketing brand.

[SLOW PIANO MUSIC PLAYING]

No. Why would it be
Brabham Racing Developments

when it... when I was
designing the cars

and was responsible
for the build of them?

[TAPE WHIRRING]

You know, we should have had
a neutral name,

or I should have been
involved in it.

BERNIE: I think in the end,
I mean,

both of them wanted to win

and were doing whatever they
thought was necessary to win.

DOUG: Motor Racing Developments

thereafter produced
Brabham racing cars.

And Brabham racing cars
became the thing to have

for Formula Two racing,
Formula Three racing,

and went on to the most
tremendous customer success.

When you're married
to Jackie Oliver,

who's a pretty quick man
in the Grand Prix Circuit,

do you ever talk
about the danger at all?

We don't really talk
about it to our husbands

because we know they're
gonna go on racing.

You have to let a boy or a man
do want they wanna do.

One wife next to me started
screaming and yelling,

so I sat there and I got scared.

I never was afraid before.

The best thing one can do
is make sure you're really,

well, financially secure.

I don't think it was easy
for my mom.

If I look back and think,
the thing that really shaped her

was the danger of
Grand Prix racing in the '60s.

She was very nervous.

Because men are stupid enough
to take risks.

You know,
men are addicted to risks.

Women are sensible, you know.

They don't, uh, wanna die.

Betty was the
most nervous person

in the team.

I mean, she was
a nervous wreck, really.

She was tough. [LAUGHS]

Wow, was she tough.

I don't know how she went
and watched Jack every weekend.

To go there and pretty much
every weekend

someone was gonna die

made them a different
breed of people.

They went to a lot of funerals.
Very good friends of theirs.

You know,
from within the paddock,

all the drivers.

And I think that probably
shaped her more than anything,

was that fear of Jack
going out there

and not coming back again.

HUGHIE: But I think
that's probably

what was the bottom line,

was that she now had three kids,
and, you know,

the last thing you wanna do

is have her husband
get wiped out in a race car.

- RON: Ready to go?
- MAN: Yes.

Okay. Let me...
Let me do my thing, you...

We try it my way,

- then you say no, okay?
- MAN: But...

Well, of course, uh,

I have to say the duo of...

Ron and Jack
was very interesting.

Ron always came across
as someone

who was preoccupied,

intense.

Jack came across as somebody

who was always preoccupied,

intense.

- RON: Okay? Guys.
- MAN: That was good.

Okay. Guys, guys, guys,
you gotta be professional.

Okay? And that means
not frigging walking around...

- MAN: Yes.
- ...distracting me

when I'm trying to focus.

You know? So, you know...

MAN: All right.

They were both
pretty grumpy guys.

And they were very conscious

of making every minute
of every day pay.

You are not the flavor
of this month this moment,

clunking down there.

He didn't suffer fools gladly.

DOUG: In fact,
we all respected them for it.

You know?
That was a funny thing.

Two senior people
screwing up my TV.

Take your shoes off. [CHUCKLES]

[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING]

WOMAN: Thirteenth,
Monaco Grand Prix,

they want you one day earlier
this year, Mr. Brabham.

Roger phoned,
can he catch a lift?

Seventeenth,
you're due at Zandvoort.

On the 25th, you present a
Formula Three car

to the best pupil driver
for BP in London.

You'll have to make a speech,

witty and not more
than 10 minutes.

Tickets on reservation
for your flight to Australia...

DAVID: The whole Brabham
Formula One program

was formalized
when Dan Gurney joined in 1963.

ANNOUNCER: Still out in front,
Dan "The Man" Gurney.

NARRATOR: Early
into the 1963 program,

Jack's hopes of
another championship

were already looking unlikely.

ANNOUNCER: Behind, number six,
Jack Brabham.

They would lead races,
and the engine would fail.

PRESENTER: ...with fuel trouble
five laps from the end.

Very bad luck.

NARRATOR: The days of being
single-mindedly focused

on the track

must have seemed like
a luxury now to Jack.

He had cars to build
and payroll to meet.

He was racing against, you know,
the Jimmy Clarks,

you know, the Stirling Mosses,

but, you know, unlike them,

he had other business ventures
going on as well.

NARRATOR: He was also being
outclassed in the field

by Dan Gurney.

ANNOUNCER: Dan Gurney, driving
a Brabham-Climax, number 9,

was on his tail
until engine trouble.

NARRATOR: By the end of 1963,

Dan was starting to sense

that Jack didn't want to spend
the money needed to compete

with the likes of Lotus
and Ferrari.

ANNOUNCER: Jim Clark wins
at over 107 miles an hour.

Jack Brabham,
he was very tight with money.

Because his interest was in...

the cost of the car,
the maintenance.

They'd work long hours,
late nights and early mornings.

MAN: Here, Jack has gathered
a team of experts

to bring a car first over
the finishing line.

NARRATOR: Finally,
it all came together

at the French Grand Prix.

ANNOUNCER: Jim Clark and
Dan Gurney in hot pursuit.

NARRATOR: Gurney had bagged
a win for Brabham Racing.

And that was
the Brabham marque's

first
World Championship-qualifying

Grand Prix success.

NARRATOR: But Jack still
couldn't break his drought.

PRESENTER: Jack Brabham,
racing ace and designer too,

in a Brabham, of course.

NARRATOR: It had been four years
since he had won an F1 race

and the aura around him
as a champion

was quickly fading.

PRESENTER: In the third lap,
Dan Gurney was in real trouble.

NARRATOR: Gurney's patience
was wearing thin

with Jack's reluctance
to spend money.

PRESENTER: He'd just broken
the lap record

when he had to drive into
the pitch

with his transistor ignition
on fire.

NARRATOR: Things with Ron were
also starting to fall apart.

All the journalists
believed that he was responsible

for the design
and build of the cars.

Which was my responsibility,
actually.

NARRATOR: Gurney won again
at the season-ending

Mexico Grand Prix,

but it seemed too little,
too late.

JACK: Hello, I'm Jack Brabham.

NARRATOR: Dan was now
the only one winning anything.

But no one seemed to be
celebrating his achievements.

They didn't celebrate at all,
never.

They really were
like a bunch of Trappist monks.

I never saw Jack really
let his hair down at any time.

He wasn't really that
sort of bloke.

He probably just went away
quietly and counted his money,

and took it to Switzerland...

[UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING]

Flew to Monaco
with Jack in 1968.

We flew to Nice via Geneva

and Jack disappeared
for a couple of hours.

I reckon he'd been to the bank,

put it like that.

I mean, everybody cheats
in Formula One.

MAN: Did you ever cheat?

I... Never caught.

"It's only wrong if you get
caught," that's what Jack said.

"It's only wrong
if you get caught."

MAN: Did Brabham ever cheat?

Never caught.

[HORSE WHINNYING]

The wrong word is "cheat."

People do whatever they can
to get an advantage.

That's the only way
you will achieve

maximum results,

if you're really running
on the edge of the rules.

MAN: And on the track, boy,
did Black Jack,

the most competitive of all
Australian sportsmen,

mean business.

Yet such was the skill level
of them all in those days

that Black Jack was involved
in very, very few accidents.

Some will tell us
that he just used to cause them.

DOUG: 'Cause another thing
you've got to appreciate

was that Black Jack, or Blackie,
could be as mean as rat shit.

JACKIE: I've had more marks
in my crash helmet

from Jack Brabham
than I have in any accident.

DOUG: If it came
to elbows-out driving,

Jack was the man.

JACKIE: He knew exactly
when to just

go off the racetrack a tiny bit.

Rivals retired their cars
with holes through the radiator.

And there was always
stones and gravel which...

He winked at me
when he told me that. He said,

"You know what I used to do,
don't you, Tony?"

I don't believe it.
Even if it's true. [CHUCKLES]

[RETRO MUSIC PLAYING]

PRESENTER: The checkered flag
down across your bonnet,

and no cars ahead of you.

That's the best sight
in the world to a racing driver.

I mean sports,
what's glorious about sports

is that it's ritualized war.

NARRATOR: Jack was desperately
looking for solutions

to get back on top for 1965.

GRAYSON: We still want
that gritty, reckless,

stoic hero.

Because then that... he's kind
of carrying with him...

that bit in us that we wish
we could be like that.

Jack didn't particularly
like the Coventry Climax

V-8 engine

to which they were wedded.

NARRATOR: So he turned
his attention to Formula Two

and enlisted Honda.

Yes, well, Honda had sent
an engine over

for Formula Two
with four young engineers.

Everything was
started from zero,

so we had to learn everything.

NARRATOR: The Brabham Honda
outing was yet another failure.

They ran the engine up for us,

but it was no good
for a race car

because we didn't have
that many revs available.

He irritated so much.

NARRATOR: And 1965
was another one of those years,

with not a single win
for the team.

Dan was very much
like my dad, you know.

He wanted to start his own team.

NARRATOR: Gurney finally left
at the end of the season

to start his own team.

And Jack's old protege
Bruce McLaren did the same,

leaving Cooper's
to start McLaren Racing.

MAN: Fangio was 47
when he retired

with five Grand Prix
World titles behind him.

Have you any
set retirement plans?

I think there must have
been some comments in the press

about the age of Jack
as a driver.

MAN: You are 40 now,

and I suppose you must have
given some thought

to how long you can keep going,
and stay at the front.

RON: And his wife, Betty,
used that as an argument

to stop racing

and to have more influence
on the children

and get back to Australia.

Didn't seem to bother him.

He wanted to race.

That was it.

I haven't got
any different plans,

but I certainly don't intend
to retire at the moment.

Well, yeah,
I think the mythologizing...

I mean, I think we all...

We are human beings,
we love a story.

You know? That's what...
That's central

to how we construct ourselves,

is narrative.

It's the most powerful and most
ancient form of culture.

And so, you need heroes,
you got to have them.

NARRATOR: And if Jack could
beat out Gurney and McLaren

in the following season,
and become the first driver

to win a championship
in a car bearing his own name,

he knew he'd not only
become a hero again,

he'd become a legend.

For 1966
and the new three-liter formula.

Coventry Climax announced
that they would not be building

a suitable engine.

So we had to produce
a Formula One car in a hurry.

DOUG: And few people
were willing to supply them

because they'd be making
a rod for their own backs.

Jack was racing in America
and he heard about these.

JOHN: He saw opportunity
in 1966, I guess,

that wasn't obvious
to anybody else.

DOUG: The new engine
that he chose

was an American prototype
production V-8.

He told Repco about them.

RON: Repco agreed
to support Jack.

TONY: Phil Irving
was charged with drawing

the Repco Brabham race engine.

BERNIE: Drivers and teams
were delighted

because they thought it would be
not very competitive.

No Formula One engine had
ever been built in Australia.

JACKIE: Who would have gone
to Australia

to get a motor-racing engine
for Formula One?

JOHN: Betty cooked me a steak
for lunch at home with Jack

and we shook hands on a deal.

And the idea was that I was
gonna work on the Repco engines.

[CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYING]

DOUG: And Ron Tauranac
engineered that

into BT19 and BT20 cars.

JOHN: There was no test bed,

so they would just get
put in the cars

and Jack and Danny had to
drive them a bit slowly

for the first few laps.

They were very practical...

The Repco engine
was constantly failing.

...and they had
all the reliability.

One particular practice
we went to,

one of the valve seats fell out.

And this
Australian-developed engine

was regarded initially
as very much the underdog

in Formula One competition.

TONY: They've only got
literally one engine.

It breaks down
in its first race.

It breaks down
in its second race.

HUGHIE: There was a moment there
before we went to Reims

where Jack said,
"Do you think we should

carry on with this thing?"

GEOFF: They had my dad,
Bruce McLaren, and Dan Gurney

all building their own cars,

taking on the might
of Lotus and Ferrari.

PRESENTER: Jack Brabham
approving the Brabham Repco...

We both said, no, no,
we gotta keep going.

PRESENTER:
Jack Brabham's car is proving

to be greater than anticipated.

It beats the Ferraris.

PRESENTER:
It was victory for Brabham.

His average speed was also
the fastest ever seen...

Hang on, this engine that no one
is taking seriously,

it has beaten the Ferraris.

ANNOUNCER: It's also
the first time that a driver

has ever won a world title event

in a car
of his own construction.

And all of a sudden,
we were King Kong

and away we went.

ANNOUNCER: Jack Brabham
driving a Repco Brabham.

DOUG: And they just won race
after race, after race,

driven by Jack Brabham
and by Denny Hulme.

RON: Well,
I didn't think about it.

We just carried on
with the next one.

ANNOUNCER: The fastest
European race since the war.

A very proud
moment in all of our lives.

DOUG: They were very,
very competent people

producing beautifully
well-made machines.

[THUNDER RUMBLES]

Is that rain?

[ROCK MUSIC PLAYING]

TONY: Jack has won
three races in a row.

With an engine
people were laughing at

at the start of the year.

If that's not enough,
he's got a Honda engine

in his Formula Two car.

ANNOUNCER: Jack Brabham, powered
by a Japanese Honda engine.

TONY: He's worked
really closely with them,

and suddenly
they have a world beater.

[NOBUHIKO LAUGHS]

ANNOUNCER: Jack Brabham
and his teammate

are one-two in the overall
points standing.

TONY: So after all
those dark years,

they are so close
to winning the championship.

ANNOUNCER: Brabham in his Repco
Brabham number 3.

The Australian won the drivers'
world title in '59 and '60.

Nürburgring is known
as the Green Hell.

ANNOUNCER:
The German Grand Prix,

fourteen miles of ups and downs
over the grueling Nürburgring.

The most difficult,
most challenging,

most prestigious, most historic
racetrack in the world.

GEOFF: You can go off
into the forest

and they're not gonna find you
for weeks.

And it's raining.

It is extremely dangerous.

ANNOUNCER: Fastest lap
in practice,

number one,
world champion Jim Clark.

NARRATOR: This was
the biggest race of Jack's life.

[SOLDIERS SINGING]

NARRATOR: To win at Nürburg,

guaranteeing motorsport
immortality.

No sooner has the race started
then there's tragedy.

TONY: Jacky Ickx
and John Taylor collide.

So, we have a car on fire.

John Taylor is in a Brabham car.

ANNOUNCER:
Brabham still leading,

driving a Repco Brabham.

It was an era
where drivers would drive

straight past a burning car

where someone literally
was being immolated.

If there was an accident,
they drove harder,

because they knew others
would be backing off.

ANNOUNCER: On Brabham's tail,
John Surtees' Cooper-Maserati

number seven.

TONY: Most teams
would've collapsed

during that long season
of lack of success.

ANNOUNCER: The Australian
won the drivers' world title

in '59 and '60.

TONY: And they are
a hair's breadth away

from winning
the World Championship,

which would make Jack
a three-time world champion.

ANNOUNCER: Brabham,
on his way to victory.

[ROCK MUSIC PLAYING]

ANNOUNCER: Jack Brabham,
ex-world champ,

proves he's not too old at forty

by this superbly confident win.

DOUG:
And for the very first time

in motor racing history,

we had a world champion driver

who'd won the World Championship

in a car bearing his own name.

WOMAN: ...a state funeral
for a three-time world champion.

Motor racing great
Sir Jack Brabham

has been remembered as a legend,
on and off the track,

at his state funeral today.

His life could have
come straight from the pages

of the Boys' Own adventure
books of his day.

Jack passed away
on Monday morning, May the 19th,

in their home
here on the Gold Coast.

He was 88 years of age.

Right.

Um, uh...

I don't think any, uh,
world champion... no, no sport...

I don't think any multiple
world champion sportsman

ever achieves what they achieve

without inflicting
some collateral family damage.

Oh, I think, um...

you know, Jack was old school.

Um...

In some way, a likable rouge.

In many ways...

he and I had a lot of conflict.

There were certain things
where he went,

"You know what, Jack?
You're out of order."

You know? I fell out with him
several times.

I think my dad ended up
sacrificing quite a lot,

particularly, I think,
from a family point of view.

He went over on his own

and left his family behind
for a year at a time,

but I would never do that.

He didn't have time
at that particular point

to really take too much interest
in what we were doing.

DAVID: He was either
at a racetrack

or he was in his workshop.

And he'd come home to eat,
sleep, and off he'd go again.

"He had an enormous amount
of grit and determination,

and never gave up,

which was demonstrated in 1959,

when he pushed his car
across the line

to win his first Formula One
World Championship."

I've lost the train
of thought now.

Go back to the question.

Tonight,
we are celebrating 70 years

of amazing history and heritage,

and paying homage to it.

[FIRE CRACKLING]

ANNOUNCER: Jack goes down
the main straight

at close to 140 miles an hour.

Jim Clark barely three seconds
behind him.

I was one when my dad won
his third World Championship,

and he retired when I was five.

So I don't remember any
of his '60s period of racing.

MAN: It's another one of those
many happy occasions...

DAVID: I was surrounded
by lots of trophies,

but they were objects.
I really didn't understand

what they were, and yeah,
you know, Dad was away a lot.

He retired, although
at the end of 1970,

we went back to Australia,

he started up three businesses,
and he started up racing again

in touring cars.

GEOFF: What he was doing
required that he spend

eighteen hours a day
doing what he was doing.

So, he was always in and out
of the house.

More out than in,
to be honest with you.

Yeah, I mean, I just got on
and did my own thing,

and was quite happy doing that.

But anyone I met,

the first thing out
of their mouth,

"Oh, that's Jack Brabham's son."

You know,
"That's Jack Brabham's son."

And that's the bit I found
difficult to cope with.

In terms of "Who am I?"

If I'm Jack's son, who am I?

So, when I look back,
I think, yeah, he was away,

but did it affect me?
It's difficult to say.

PRESENTER: Racing writers
have called him

"The Shy Champion."

TONY: I've been an author
for decades

and I've probably now read
every single word

ever written about Jack Brabham.

PRESENTER: The quietly spoken
gentleman of the circuits...

TONY: And yet, he's almost
impossible to read.

PRESENTER:
The name of Brabham ranks

now with Fangio and Ferrari.

TONY: It's so easy to talk about

the extraordinary things
that he's done,

but in terms of
getting into his mind,

that's a much, much more
difficult proposition.

MAN: So, Ron,
where you're drawing

is between your face
and this lens, okay?

- My face?
- This area around here, please,

Oh, because
I can't see the lens.

That's right.
If you just work around here,

- we'll be all right.
- Yeah. So...

MAN: Around about here,
where my hand is.

- Yeah, okay.
- MAN: Okay?

I don't know what the hell
to draw.

Ugh, it all slips down. So...

MAN: That's all right,
that's all right.

Remember, it's hand-drawn.

Yeah, but it's just
a mess though.

See, this is really...
Just slips down

as soon as I put
any pressure on it.

MAN: Well, thankfully,
you're not designing the next...

the next big Formula One
revolution.

Unfortunately.

[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING]

I don't really know
quite how truly friendly

Ron and Jack Brabham were.

He took ideas from me,
and so forth,

and I got equipment from him
and help on machining from him.

MAN: So, it was very much
a mutual respect?

That's right.

He had more respect for money
than I did.

DOUG: Ron Tauranac,
I always recall

as one of the most competitive
race engineers I've ever met.

It was very difficult to decide
who was actually

steering the ship
because, obviously,

Jack had very firm views
on how to set up a car,

and they would spend
endless amounts of time

debating this or, you could say,
even arguing about it.

GEOFF: Another myth
is that people talk about

genes being passed down
the family.

Uh, that's not true.

Racing is a disease.

DAVID: Growing up on the farm,
I loved to speed.

You know, I would drive
every vehicle,

every motorbike, every tractor,
flat out, sideways,

always trying to find
that extra limit.

Went to a workshop,
saw a go-kart sitting there,

never seen a racing go-kart
in my life.

Didn't even know
people raced them.

The mechanic was there,
working on the kart,

and I said, "Do people race
these things, do they?"

And he sort of looked at me
and said, "Are you adopted?"

So, when I jumped in the
go-kart for the very first time,

and Dad's watching me,
he's just gone,

"Okay, where the hell's
that come from?"

You know,
when I drove race cars,

the speed meant nothing.

It was competing against
somebody else and beating them.

That was the thrill
that I got out of racing.

DAVID:
He's a veteran anyway, so,

you can see the lines, you know?

[LAUGHTER]

WOMAN: David is the third
of Sir Jack Brabham's sons

to follow the former
Formula One world champion.

DAVID: I think the turning point
for me was...

I did a race
and my dad came to it,

and I won by, like, half a lap,

and that was the time he went,
"This kid could go a long way."

MAN: So, do you think... did you
aspire to be like your brothers?

I aspired to beat them.

[UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING]

MAN: On November 29, 1970,

the racing greats of the world
gather in your honor

for the Brands Hatch
farewell meeting.

The next evening, they gather
again for a farewell banquet

given in your honor
at the Savoy Hotel in London.

Well, Betty, the Ford Company

presents you
with a ball and chain,

and it's inscribed,

"Presented to Betty Brabham
on 25th November, 1970,

who won in the end."

And here's your reply.

I've been asked what I did

to make Jack
give up motor racing.

It was quite simple really.
I said,

"Jack, motor racing or divorce?"

[LAUGHTER]

GEOFF: When my dad
retired in 1970,

he retired and just sold
everything out to Ron.

I'm surprised that he did that.

It was a little bit, I think,
out of character for him

just to shut the door
and walk away.

MAN: And now, Jack, here is your
good friend, Ron Tauranac.

[DRAMATIC MUSIC]

RON: Well, I was at Monaco,

and I was walking along past
the oceanfront

and a friend said,
"Just a moment.

I'll introduce you to someone."

They introduced me
to Bernie Ecclestone.

[LAUGHING]

I said I'd buy into the team.

And I said, "Well, no.
I wouldn't sell a half share,

I've been in business
with a friend for many years,

and I wouldn't want
to do that again."

And it then came that he wanted
to sell, full stop.

I said, "But I'll sell you
the business."

Ron had his own ideas
of what should happen,

and he didn't always,
sort of, fall into line,

so I changed them.

He gave me a call
and offered me...

I think it was one million less.

[EERIE MUSIC PLAYING]

Really? I don't remember.

I should have bartered
but I didn't.

I just thought about it
and said,

"Gee, I'm in trouble
if I don't sell now.

I've arranged all these things."

So I agreed to sell.

It was agreed,
he was looking for one price,

and I'd probably try
and buy it for less.

Nothing's changed
as far as I'm concerned.

GEOFF: And then
when Bernie sold it,

things, you know,
went downhill really fast

from that point to where
it just totally disappeared.

TONY: We had a shed
full of things

that were very sentimental
to the family.

So, it was a telephone call
from my mom.

"I got some bad news.
The shed went up in flames."

And it's, like, "What?"

How could it go up in flames?

You know, it was just a mystery.

And anything we can't find,

we just assumed
that it's down to the fire.

[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING]

GRAYSON:
To a child, their parents

are the only ones they have.

So, therefore,
you do put them on a pedestal.

You know,
they are perfect because...

in order for you to survive
in the family unit,

you've got to believe
that they're perfect.

But if you have a very famous
and successful parent,

their perfection
is held up there,

not just by you
but by the public as well,

and I suppose they've got
further to fall.

So, if they turn out
to be flawed,

you know, it might be harder
to deal with.

PRESENTER:
There was action aplenty

in the Formula Ford event.

David Brabham in the yellow car
was about to lap Schumac

when he smashed
into the back of him.

YOUNG DAVID:
I'm coping pretty well.

I've still got a lot to learn,

through what Dad's
telling me and that.

DAVID: When I was at the
Australian Grand Prix in 1987,

my girlfriend got pregnant
that year,

and I didn't qualify
particularly well.

I was last, 30 something.

Just before the race, my father
had a Formula One pass,

and I said, you know,
"You better get me one of those

for when I'm in Formula One."

Didn't know what else to say,
you know,

and he just said, "You know,

the days of you ever getting
to Formula One are finished."

And he just, like, deadpan,
dead serious.

And that just triggered
a switch in me,

and I told him to fuck off,

and I walked off.

And I had steam coming out
of my...

I was so angry,

so incredibly pissed off
with him,

that I took that energy

and took it into the race car.

And turned it into...
let's call it determination.

"I'm gonna fucking show you."

[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING]

MAN: Jack Brabham,
keeping an eye

on young son David.

DAVID: And I got in that car
and I said,

"You tell those guys in front
of me that I'm coming through.

They'd better
get out of my way."

Boom, off I went, and drove
ten notches higher

than I've ever driven
up until that point.

MAN: Young David
made a slow start

but he's come back
through the pack.

Yes, actually,
David is actually third now.

I went from 35th to 1st
in 14 laps

and won the race in 15.

That whole experience for me
was my gift

because I discovered something
about the mental mindset,

and what can be created by that.

It was a magic lesson for me

because I carried
that through my career.

I think as I got older,
you start to understand

more about what Jack
actually achieved,

and it's so big, so vast.

Probably was a negative

because I... My attitude was

"Well, I'll never get that far,
but how far could I get?"

[CHUCKLES] We actually met at...

Initially we met at a racetrack.

You know, I grew up
with motor sport,

so it just seemed normal.

DAVID: I had had
a very successful

Formula Three season in 1989.

I'd won the British F3
Championship and the World Cup,

and I'm at home, doing my thing,
and the phone rings,

and it's the Brabham
Formula One team saying,

"How would you like to come out?

We want you to be
in Formula One."

"What?" [CHUCKLES]

You know, it was like,
"Are you serious?"

Money.

Yeah, I ended up driving
for a team

that ran out of money.
[CHUCKLES]

ANNOUNCER:
This is his first outing

in a Formula One car.

And the preparation
for his race debut

in less than two weeks
will be rushed.

You turn up at the workshop,

and your car is still there
with no engine in it.

"What's happening?"
"No one's paid

for the engines yet."

"So, are we gonna
make the race?" "Don't know."

YOUNG DAVID: The goal
at the moment is to qualify

and to finish the race.

LISA: Sadly, it turned out
to be a very difficult season,

and maybe it defined us,
maybe it helped us as a couple.

It certainly proved
that we could stick together

whether it was good,
bad or ugly.

[UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING]

DAVID: It was just a mess,
an absolute mess.

But then I went into
sports car racing,

and really found my niche.

YOUNG DAVID: Well,
I have to say,

that was an absolute blast.

You know, dicing for the lead
the whole way.

[ENGINES REVVING]

[CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]

GRAYSON: We lived a lot nearer
to the edge,

you know,
when we stopped evolving.

I often think about, you know,
what we need out of modern life.

Sportsmen being in control
of a motor vehicle,

you're in the moment.

It's that kind of dance
of physics and mechanics,

and they carry it out
to the nth degree,

right on the edge
of the envelope of their skill.

And that is happiness.

It's the Everest of...

feeling alive, I suppose.

You just find
that they are very selfish.

He's probably one
of the better sportsmen.

DAVID: There was a lot
of similarities between

me as a kid with my dad,
and the kids with myself.

I was away a lot as well.

ANNOUNCER: ...the great race
at Le Mans

and there is an Aussie there,
David Brabham.

DAVID: It's just you get into
this mindset that you kind of

forget about other things
around you

and some of those times
it was family stuff.

The most important thing
is the next corner.

You get to the limit, you know,
there's another limit.

Next one, next one, next one.

And there are things I know.
My wife turns around

and says,
"You're so like your father."

I was like, "Don't."

BERNIE: I think it's not a case
of when a guy starts.

It's how long they've been
having to pack their bags,

go to their hotel,
leave their hotel,

go to the circuit, go testing,
and they get fed up.

DAVID: Depression plays a role
when you stop.

Of that there is no doubt.

You know it's the end
of your career,

you know you're not as fast
as you were.

I was shocked at how much
of a low I went into.

They're lost,
and I think it's hard for them.

They're used to people
just telling them

they're the best thing
since slice bread.

They are their successes.

Everybody wants a piece of you,

and suddenly the phone
doesn't ring.

[THUNDER RUMBLING]

[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING]

MAN: Tonight,
we're welcoming back

one of the great names
in motor racing.

The continuation
of the epic history of a story

that began with
a young Jack Brabham racing

that midget car
out there in the corner.

And Le Mans victories
for David and for Geoff

help keep the Brabham name
in the forefront.

And that's what we're
celebrating here tonight.

When I was 40, I thought,

okay, what am I gonna do
in ten years' time?

So I started to think
about doing something

with the Brabham name.

I had no idea what or how,

I just felt there was
an opportunity.

GEOFF: I mean,
I have to be honest,

I don't know if Dad
was the best businessman.

Someone in Germany said,
"I own Brabham."

GEOFF: One of the foolish things
that my dad did

was that he lost control
of the name.

"What do you mean?
That's our name.

How can you...
How can you claim that?"

He knew nothing,
had no interest in marketing,

about selling himself,

about creating a brand
for himself.

This is a Japanese spanner.

Not a cheap Asian spanner,
but a quality hand tool.

And it's good. I know it's...

All those things were just
not part of his makeup.

If it was gonna cost Dad
five dollars to renew the name,

he wouldn't do it.
You know, it was... [LAUGHS]

DAVID: So, my dad and I
had a chat about it,

and we were gonna go to court.

Dad pulled out
at the last minute,

and said, "You're on your own."

There was a bit of anger,
I guess.

"How could you do this?"

It would've made life
a little bit more comfortable

and easier for us
and less stressful.

DAVID: So, do I go
into the lion's den

or do I...
Do I walk away, you know?

And I chose to walk
into the lion's den,

which had felt like a lion's den
for seven years.

LISA: It was financially very
crippling for us as a family

and I think that, in a way,
energized David as well,

It's like "Right. If you don't...
If you're not willing to fight

to get your name back,
I'm gonna do it,

because I'm not letting it go.

But then it's mine, basically.

Any decisions now,
once this court case is over,

subject to winning it,
will be down to me."

DAVID: You've been cocooned
for 30 years

as a professional sportsman,
and that's all you know.

And then, all of a sudden,
you go into the real world

and you don't know how it works.

So then you're hard on yourself

because you don't know
how it works.

You know, the amount of times
I use Google to figure out

what someone said, you know,

because it was, like,
what the hell is that?

I had no idea.

And then you'd start
to lose confidence.

[CAR ENGINE REVVING]

DAVID: With perseverance
and support from the family,

I won the court case.

DAVID: Brabham, one of most
iconic names in motor sport,

is coming back.

We're coming back
with a completely new model

for the way the race team
is funded and run.

Be one of those to seize
this opportunity.

Come join us and become
the heartbeat of our race team.

DAVID: I took my wife out
to the coffee shop, penniless.

And a beggar came to the table,

and I thought I've got
one pound left in my pocket.

And I just pulled it out,
I gave it to him.

I said, "There you go,
off you go."

And off he went.

And I'm staring out the window,
going, "What can I do,

what can I do, what can I do?"

[PIANO MUSIC PLAYING]

And I ended up selling
my Le Mans-winning Rolex.

And of course we managed
to have a very successful

crowd-funding campaign
called Project Brabham.

DAVID: My father,
Sir Jack Brabham,

started out with little more
than talent and self-belief

and became the only person
ever to win

a Formula One World Championship
in a car he constructed.

DAVID: It was a great success.

It ultimately ended up
being about 300 grand.

But 300 grand
doesn't get you a race team.

You know,
we had a team of people

trying to work through that,

and, of course, you've had
one injection of cash,

there's no more money coming in.

So you know
over a period of time

if you don't bring more cash in,

you're gonna run out of money.

Last weekend, David Brabham

drove his father's
famous Cooper-Climax T51

at Sebring in Florida.

You know
that when he was gonna go,

it was gonna be big news.

Driving the Cooper-Climax
really gave him a thrill.

- It meant so much to him.
- DAVID: One of those moments

in time

you'll never forget
where you were

when you got the call, you know.

And it was my brother Geoff
who called me.

I received a phone call.

Dad had passed away,
and it was just a huge shock.

DAVID: He was going
to be doing dialysis,

because of his kidneys.

So, he was in the routine
of having to get up quite early

to get to the hospital
to do the dialysis

because he couldn't do it
at home.

NURSE: Okay.
And now for some local.

She's come back
with a cup of tea,

and he's gone in bed.

I went straight into
"Right, okay,

the press are gonna be
all over this soon.

We're gonna have
to have a statement,

I'm gonna have to tell
our PR people

that it's happened."

And you go... you kind of go
into this mode,

which, in some way, I think
is a way of protecting you

from getting too involved
in the loss.

GEOFF: I spent more time
with him at the end of his life

than I ever did
at the beginning of my life.

And I had the opportunity
to probably get to know him

a little bit better, you know,
just before he died

than any other time
during his life.

DAVID: Certainly the last
ten years of Jack's life,

our relationship was as good
as it ever had been.

You kind of get older,
you get bit wiser.

You... It doesn't pay
to judge other people's lives.

So, we actually had a...
Had a really good end

to that relationship.

MAN: It's hopeless. See,
if I couldn't say those words,

and needed to look to try
and do it from memory,

I'd say something different.

It's a joy to see the BT brand
being honored

with a new and exciting
Brabham BT62.

I wish David all the best

as he takes Brabham
into the future.

Well, you've built the model
of a future,

now let's see how it handles.

DAVID: I got a call
from a contact of mine,

and said, "Look, I know
you've always been trying

to get the Brabham name
back out there

onto the world stage.

There's a group of people I know
that have got a vision as well,

and I think you guys
need to meet."

So I flew down to Adelaide,
and met with them.

You know, they wanted for me
to get involved,

and could we produce
a high-performance car.

SAM: I just wanted to get
Dad's perspective.

What do you...
How have you felt?

Yes, it's been just a whirlwind,
to be honest with you.

I'm sure after the event,
I'll sit back there and go, wow.

I'm so proud of him.

I think to see
what he's come from,

from being just a racing driver
who's done very well,

to the trials and tribulations

of learning about business
from scratch.

...global reveal
of the Brabham BT62.

The Brabham BT62.

To come out the other side
as a success

and with something
he truly believes in,

there's something to be said
for that,

and it's a good value and moral
to have as I grow up as well.

[PIANO MUSIC PLAYING]

"He had an enormous amount
of grit and determination,

and never gave up,

which was demonstrated in 1959,

when he pushed his car
across the line

to win his first Formula One
World Championship."

Gonna start putting my shoes on,
because I gotta head.

LISA: I'm really proud of David.

I would say I'm prouder of him
for what he's done now,

post racing.

Taking on the court case
and taking on Brabham,

and saying,
"This has got to change,

this is what I want,
this is my dream."

I'm far prouder of him
doing that

because he's taken himself

absolutely out
of his comfort zone.

MAN: As you can see,
the car is lurking undercover

in the center of the
magnificent room behind me,

but we're also surrounded
by some amazing cars

from Brabham's history
and heritage.

We like to think we've done
what my father did

back in 1948,

backed ourselves
and got it done.

And developed a car
that absolutely has the right

to carry the Brabham name
into the future.

I personally don't think
David's actually grieved.

Realistically,
I don't think he's grieved.

[SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING]

LISA: And I think
part of the drive for this

does stem from his dad.

And although their relationship
obviously got so much better,

this, for him, is like
"This is what I did."

But also, I think it's important
that David does know

that he is David.

And you have to battle
with that, feeling part

of a legacy or whatever
you want to call it.

Because I can't say what's going
to have closure for David.

Whether it is just affirmation
that "Yes, I did this,"

or "Stuff you, you told me
this, that, and the other

when I was little,
and I've done it."

I don't know
which one it's gonna be.

I think we're on a 50/50
with that.

[PIANO MUSIC PLAYING]

["BLACK EYED BRUISER" PLAYING]

♪ If you see me
Walking down the street ♪

♪ Better get out my way ♪

♪ I'm a real king hitter ♪

♪ Always have my say ♪

♪ If you're looking
For a happy time ♪

♪ Best you don't come around ♪

♪ Or else
You'll get your heavy ♪

♪ Six feet of solid ground ♪

♪ I don't like trouble ♪

♪ But if trouble
Is the name of your game ♪

♪ You know where
You can find me, boy ♪

♪ Everybody knows my name ♪

♪ I'm the black eyed ♪

♪ The black eyed ♪

♪ The black eyed bruiser ♪