The Jack Brabham Story
by Jack Brabham and Doug Nye

The Jack Brabham Story tells a story beginning in Australia where a young Jack Brabham wanted to volunteer for flying duties during the last World War, but was told that the Air Force had far too many pilots, but they were really in need of good flight engineers. With Jack's aptitude for all things mechanical, he proved to be the born engineer and after ending his service with the armed forces in 1945 he took to repairing neighbor's cars.

Through friendships and circumstances he eventually took up motor racing on the Australian circuits and improved his cars to such a degree that he began winning frequently.

Again, it was seemingly the persuasive power of friends and acquaintances that he went to Britain to see how he would measure up to the motor racing elite from Europe.

Brabham found that with the right equipment, he was very competitive with the best of them and during the early part of his career he raced against greats such as Fangio, Hawthorn and Moss.

In those days no one gave a second thought to safety. Drivers didn't wear seat belts, crash helmets were very rudimentary crash-hats, fireproof underwear and overalls were still years down the line.

Add to that, that the races were held on long, undulating road-courses on public roads that were curtailed for the events with telephone poles, trees and spectators up very close to the track. You begin to understand that this really was an entirely different era of racing.

A special partnership formed with John Cooper. He was putting the engine in the back of lightweight and small cars that were not as powerful as the current front-engined Grand Prix cars, but handled considerably better than the heavy Formula 1 cars of the era.

Finally, in 1959 and 1960 the partners succeeded and Jack Brabham won back-to-back titles as World Champion.

Finding his influence with Cooper diminishing, Jack decided it was time to set up his own operation with Ron Tauranac and thus the Brabham Racing Team was launched.

Some years of unreliability and beginner's errors meant that success eluded the team until everything had fallen in the right place at once in the 1966 and 1967 seasons.

In 1966, the first year under new engine rules in Formula 1 that required 3 litre engines, the basic engine off a Buick V8 was rebuilt as the Repco. Its reliability and torque in combination with a very small and light chassis meant that the Brabham's were the cars to beat during those two years.

The years from 1968 until Brabham retired at the end of the 1970 season saw the emergence of the Ford Cosworth engine and the Lotus 72, which was very quick and also very deadly.

During most of the years he raced regularly in Formula 2, the Indy 500 and in sports cars.

During a Formula 2 race at Hockenheim he happened to be looking ahead as Jim Clark crashed into the trees and was killed. Brabham believes that the crash was caused by a deflating rear tire, as Jim had been racing hard on previous occasions apparently without noticing a rear tire going down. Brabham and other drivers had on those previous occasions had to race beside Clark pointing to the rear of his Lotus to indicate that something was amiss with his car.

Growing pressure from the family in the face of the death of too many drivers and friends during those years finally persuaded Brabham that it was time to retire from Formula 1 at the age of 44.

A testing accident at Silverstone in 1969 nearly put an end to the life of the triple-champion as he was trapped in his Brabham with the fuel tanks ruptured. Amazingly, it was acceptable testing procedure back then to test a car round a circuit with absolutely no look outs around the track, no medical emergency team standing by, and with only the onboard fire extinguisher to rely on, should the need arise. Of course the driver had to be conscious and able to reach the trigger button as well.

The crashed car with Brabham trapped in it was found by another vehicle on the track that day which had been doing the rounds and eventually Brabham was extricated, suffering only a broken ankle.

The following year at Zandvoort during testing, Brabham again crashed his car and was trapped in wire fencing, once again dreading the potential results if the spilled fuel ignited.

Apart from the unnecessary high risks that were taken during those years of Grand Prix racing and the tragic cost in terms of lives lost, one can't help looking at this period in motor racing with a bit of nostalgia, longing for more of the good bits in modern formula 1 racing. Back then the drivers were clearly visible to the spectators when behind the wheel. Just imagine the tall Dan Gurney in a tiny Brabham. The cars could be drifted with much less fear of wearing the tires down — during the first half of the 60's they lasted for several races. The circuits had more character than your state-of-the-art Thilke-designed media-bowls. Perhaps the most important aspect of all is this: The cars were often built, tested, improved and repaired during race weekends where car-owner, driver and a few mechanics worked round the clock, and if they were out of parts to assemble a race-engine, Colin Chapman of Lotus wouldn't mind lending you one of his engines!

A fascinating book with lots of fabulous pictures of Brabham's cars and some tech talk as well, where Sir Jack tells his story in a down-to-earth manner.

Ronnie Peterson: Formula One Super Swede
by Johnny Tipler

Monza, 1978: The cars had almost finished their parade lap and the fastest cars from practice are already stationary at the front rows of the grid. Further back, cars are still slowing down or hanging back, attempting to gain an advantage on the stationary cars ahead at the start.

The starter waves the green flag prematurely as not all 24 cars have fully stopped in their assigned grid boxes. The cars on the last rows effectively get a flying start.

Patrese moves over to the extreme right hand side of the track, hugging the pit wall in an attempt to overtake as many cars as possible before entry to the first chicane.

What happens as the wide start / finish straight narrows before the chicane is still disputed. Later, Patrese was by many seen as the initiator of the accident by moving over to the right from a flying start and passing all those cars. But somewhere in the middle of the field as Patrese moves in amongst several cars that are too close to each other, cars touch and start the accident where Ronnie Peterson's Lotus is hit first by James Hunt's McLaren, then by Brambilla's Surtees.

The Lotus 78 catches fire as fuel from a catch can placed inside the cockpit is cracked open and Ronnie's feet and legs are trapped from the impact which has destroyed the nose cone section of his car. James Hunt rushes from his car and runs to the flaming wreckage of the Lotus.

The fire is quickly extinguished and eventually drivers and marshals succeed in dragging Peterson from the wreck. He is conscious and although in great pain from his broken legs and feet, he is not severely burnt. He can talk coherently to other drivers. Brambilla is dragged out of his car and as he is unconscious. Initially he is considered to be the person in the greatest danger from the accident.

Brambilla is immediately transferred to the waiting ambulance. Ronnie is lying on the tarmac receiving the attention of the track-medics while Didier Pironi kneels at his side. Then, after what is an eternity, Ronnie is carried on a stretcher to a second ambulance which has finally arrived at the scene of the accident.

There is a sense of disorganized mess as the carabinieri try to take control of the situation and in doing so they confuse matters more.

"Shock" describes the scene in the following minutes. Ecclestone and Reggazoni are having angry words. Chapman can be seen listening to Mario Andretti's account of the incident as they stand amongst team managers, mechanics, rescue personnel and other drivers.

Dr. Sid Watkins ensures that Ronnie is sent to a nearby, previously checked hospital, to be treated for his leg injuries and the general feeling is that although the accident was horrifying, Ronnie should not be in any immediate danger. After all, Hill had an almighty accident at Watkins Glen in ´69 where he smashed up his legs, and he returned to racing the following season.

In the hospital during the night, the doctors operate on Sweden's greatest Formula 1 racer but at some point Ronnie suffers from an embolism which essentially blood-clotted in his lungs, heart and brain, due to marrow from the broken legs entering his blood-stream. He passes away.

In his illustrious career, Ronnie had many accidents and off's due in part to mechanical failure of the frail cars he drove, but also due to his uncompromising driving style. Every time he went out he wanted to win, be the fastest and destroy the opposition. Quite contrary to other drivers, like Jackie Stewart who said that he wanted to drive as slowly as possible, just fast enough to win.

Gilles Villenueve was a driver in the same mold as Peterson. Both drove ill-handling cars beyond what should have been possible, achieving faster lap times than their cars warranted.

Ronnie cured massive understeer by throwing the car into the bends and drifting while using plenty of opposite lock to correct the sliding rear-end exiting the turns. Yet all the while displaying his exquisite throttle control.

According to "Ronnie Peterson: Formula 1 Super Swede", Ronnie's forte was not so much in setting up the car in a methodical, engineering sort of way. He drove around deficiencies in the car's handling and unless it was a totally obsolete, or damaged car, he'd post fast times no matter what setup he drove.

He even raced his road cars in a manner that today seems totally irresponsible. Running sideways for kilometers during a snowstorm when ordinary motorists found that the weather was too much for their driving abilities.

During an IROC race at Daytona he was so fast that apparently the organizer of that particular race threw his Rolex watch onto the track in order to get the pace car out so the other drivers could catch up with Ronnie who was storming away with the race.

The only things that prevented Ronnie from winning several World Championships were ill-advised strategy from team-owners. In 1973, when Team Lotus let Emerson Fittipaldi and Ronnie take points away from each other or, being in the wrong team at the wrong time.

As you see, this book offers lots of information, anecdotes, and interesting tidbits from Ronnie Peterson's career, from the start in homebuilt karts through his rise as King of F2 to his time in Formula 1, until that day at Monza in 1978.

It also has a lot of very fine photographs, is beautifully laid out and is a fine tribute to Superswede, or Mad-Ronald as he was called by Mike Hailwood.

In many ways, the book also illustrates what difference 25 years make. In racing car design and manufacture, as well as in terms of "Zeitgeist". For example, contracts were considered binding and they had no buyout clauses.

Only small items that would have been caught with an extra iteration of proofreading detract a bit from the overall very high quality of this book, which is a must for fans of the fastest man in Formula 1 during most of the seventies.

Piers Courage: Last of the Gentleman Racers
by Adam Cooper with Foreword by Sir Frank Williams

This is one of the best books on motor racing I have ever read. When I had finished it I literally wished it would go on for many many more pages. It is funny, sad and it immerses you in it's story which is told with what seems to be genuine affection and love for Piers Courage by those who knew him.

Heir to the Courage brewery and born with the proverbial silver spoon in his mouth, Piers was sent to Eton to receive the kind of education that only the best English boarding schools could provide in order to prepare it's students for a life in wealth as captains of industry, or in command of either battalions, divisions or squadrons in war.

Young Courage decided that this future in fortune was not for him. He early on developed a passion for motor racing and despite no financial help and no encouragement from his family, he set out to satisfy his deep desire for racing.

The book tells of a time in the mid-sixties where Piers and friends would load their rudimentary racing cars onto a trailer during the summer months and then drive to the continent to participate in races all over Europe. They would be gone for several weeks, perhaps even months, only returning to England to get cars fixed that had been smashed beyond what could be sorted on the spot. Often highly untraditional tools or methods were used to ensure repair and spare parts. Returning trips to England would be to pick up some sort of studying, apprenticeship or temporary job off-season. They were always dreaming of and living for the day that they would go motor racing again.

There are many unique and intriguing anecdotes regarding Piers and some of the characters that were a part of the gang at that time. A very young and broke Frank Williams for example, who used a phone both as his permanent office and who, according to the book, sold the coat he wore just to get some money to support his aspirations as first a racer, then as a team manager.

Having to compete in Formula races in Europe and establish himself in Formula 1 on merit and talent alone meant that Piers started racing in Formula 1 in BRM's that were at that time spare cars, or 3rd choice cars for the team's leading drivers.

Nevertheless, when the equipment didn't let him down, he often drove the car to very good results, on occasions sensational results.

There's also a large section in the book that is devoted to the races in the Tasman Series where F1 stars like Rindt, Stewart, Hill and others lived, traveled and raced under circumstances that were primitive, boheme-like and far below the standards that drivers are being used to today.

A partnership with Frank Williams — who at that time was beginning to gain a foothold in Formula 1 as an entrant was forming and it was compared to other famous partnerships like Chapman-Clark, Tyrrell-Stewart. Williams-Courage was going to be then next big step.

Frank Williams was very proud of Piers Courage and felt that in him he had found the perfect young driver that would further the goals of team as well as driver.

Sadly, in 1970 during the Dutch GP at Zandvoort, Piers Courage was killed as he crashed in his De Tomaso. Many parts of the car had been built in magnesium for low weight, the car caught fire and was soon ablaze. The fire was impossible to stop.

Apart from telling Piers' story, the book is illustrated with lots of remarkable pictures, is truly well-written, and of a very high production quality in terms of binding, paper, and layout.

When I turned the last page I felt a sense of loss. Not just because I had finished the book, but because it felt like Piers Courage had become a good friend.

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