Gary Brabham

Gary Thomas Brabham (born 29 March 1961) is a former professional racing driver and a convicted child sex offender from Australia.

He is the son of three-time World Formula One Champion Sir Jack Brabham and the brother of Le Mans winners Geoff and David Brabham.

His solitary F1 berth came with Life, a team that failed to prequalify for a single F1 race in its lone season of existence.

He made his racing debut in 1982, finishing his first race at Calder Park Raceway in third despite being in a 9-year-old car.

He later broke the Formula Ford lap record at the Sandown Raceway in the same car.

Later in 1982, he was chosen to go to Europe for 1983.

During 1984, he tried his hand at other categories, including racing sport cars in the Thundersports Series, taking his maiden victory at Snetterton, sharing a Tiga-Ford TS84 with Tim Lee-Davey.

With no top single-seater drives available for him in 1985, Brabham had a slight reprieve through the Thundersports series, where he raced for the TechSpeed Racing team in a Shrike-Ford P15 alongside Divina Galica, recording five second places.

In 1986, his father got a team together under the banner of Jack Brabham Racing.

Gary raced in 9 of the 18 rounds of the British Formula 3 Championship in a Ralt-Volkswagen RT30, managing some decent results such as second at Silverstone.

This was enough to take him to fifth in the championship.

For 1987, the team had secured Panasonic backing for 15 of the 19 F3 races, in a Ralt-Volkswagen RT31.

Brabham won two races at Silverstone and Donington Park, coming I sixth in the championship.

He was threatening Johnny Herbert for the title until his budget tragically ran out.

He returned to Australia briefly to race in the 1987 James Hardie 1000 at Bathurst, sharing a works BMW M3 with Juan Manuel Fangio II.

The car was up to fifth at one stage before Fangio glanced a stricken car in the rain.

Brabham showed his speed late in the race, dicing and passing the Aussie legend Peter Brock.

For 1988, Brabham returned to England, joining Bowman Racing for a third season of British Formula 3.

Although JJ Lehto won the championship, Brabham stormed home late in the season, winning four races in his Ralt-Volkswagen RT32 to finish second.

On his way, he also won the Scottish Superprix and Oulton Park Gold Cup.

This earned him his first chance to test a Formula One car.

He tested a Benetton B188 at the behest of team manager, Peter Collins, at Jerez.

A chance to move up to International Formula 3000 arose in 1989, but the drive went to Andrea Chiesa, instead.

Brabham settled for a drive with Bromley Motorsport, in the British Formula 3000 Championship, in an ex-Roberto Moreno Reynard-Cosworth 88D.

He took this car to the inaugural title with four victories and pole positions along the way.

During the season, he also managed to secure some outings in the International series for both Bromley and Leyton House teams, his best result being fifth at Brands Hatch.

Also, Brabham finished fifth at the 1988 Formula 3 Macau Grand Prix and sixth in 1989.

After more F1 testing for Leyton House and Brabham teams, he also assisted Porsche with their Indy car, before the opportunity arose to race in F1.

He failed to prequalify for two Formula One Grands Prix with the troubled Life project, a team that failed to prequalify for all 14 of its attempts during the 1990 season.

Brabham was the second-slowest prequalifier (leading only the Coloni-Subaru of Bertrand Gachot, who recorded a lap time of 5:15.010, but 30 seconds behind the EuroBrun of Claudio Langes) at Phoenix, and the engine gave up after only 400 m in Brazil.

One small plus of the car was that it was the sixth-fastest car in a straight line in untimed practice in Brazil.

Brabham's career never fully recovered, despite winning the 1991 Sebring 12 Hours and being the first Australian to start the Gold Coast Indy Grand Prix.

Brabham, born in Wimbledon, England, was the second-born of the triple World Champion Sir Jack Brabham.

Despite hopes from his mother that he would avoid the motor-racing scene altogether, he grew up on a diet of Formula Ford in both Australia and the UK.

Despite very little support from the Australian public, Brabham raced in the British Formula Ford 2000 Championship for Neil Trundle Racing, in a Reynard SF83.

He finishing the season in 11th place.

During this season, he also made his sports car-racing début, sharing a March-Ford 83S, with Alo Lawler at Brands Hatch.

For the following season, he remained in the same series, joining Penistone Racing, partnering Julian Bailey in their Reynard SF84.

Brabham regularly outpaced his team-mate, and despite team orders not to outperform his team-mate, he still was not disgraced taking sixth overall in the final championship positions.

Although Brock would eventually win the race, Brabham and Fangio were classified 16th at the end.