Geoff Brabham

Geoff Brabham
Brabham at the 2014 Indianapolis 500
Nationality	Australian
Born	(1952-03-20) 20 March 1952 Sydney, Australia
Retired	2001
Related to	Jack Brabham (father) Matthew Brabham (son) Gary Brabham (brother) David Brabham (brother) Sam Brabham (nephew) Lisa Thackwell (sister in law)
Australian Super Touring Championship
Years active	1995–1997
Teams	BMW Motorsport Australia
Starts	48
Wins	9
Best finish	2nd in 1995 & 1997 Australian Super Touring Championship
Previous series
1974 1975 1978 1979 1981–87, 1990, 1992, 1994 1979–81 1987–92 1989–94 1993–2001	Australian Formula Ford Australian Formula 2 British Formula One Series Formula Super Vee Indycar Can-Am IMSA GT Championship IROC V8 Supercar
Championship titles
1975 1979 1981 1988 1989 1990 1991	Australian Formula 2 Championship SCCA Super Vee Championship Can-Am IMSA GTP Championship IMSA GTP Championship IMSA GTP Championship IMSA GTP Championship
Awards
2004	Motorsports Hall of Fame of America

Geoff Brabham (born 20 March 1952) is an Australian racing driver. Brabham spent the majority of his racing career in the United States.

Racing career

CART

He raced successfully in CART early in his career, finishing 8th in 1982, 1984 and 1987 with nine podiums. In ten appearances in the Indianapolis 500, he had a best result of fourth in 1983 and fifth in 1981.

Sports car racing

His greatest source of success was in various forms of sports cars, winning four IMSA GTP titles (1988 - 1991) when racing for Nissan, and one Can-Am championship (1981).

Brabham also won the 1993 24 Hours of Le Mans driving one of the factory Peugeot 905 alongside French drivers Éric Hélary and Christophe Bouchut. His younger brother David Brabham had won the GT class in the race driving a Jaguar XJ220 for Tom Walkinshaw Racing, but the team was later disqualified for technical infringements. Geoff Brabham became just the third Australian driver to win Le Mans after Bernard Rubin (1928) and Vern Schuppan in 1983. David Brabham would also go on to win Le Mans in 2009, also driving for the factory Peugeot team.

Touring car racing

Later in his career, Brabham returned to Australia, where he was runner-up in the 1995 and 1997 Australian Super Touring Championship, and won the 1997 Bathurst 1000 Super Touring race driving a BMW 320i alongside brother David. The pair initially finished second behind BMW Motorsport Australia team mates Paul Morris and Craig Baird, but a blunder by the team left Baird in his car at the final pit stop which meant that by the end of the race, the Kiwi driver had breached the race regulation which limited any one driver to a maximum of three hours continuous driving. This caused their disqualification and handed the win to the Brabham brothers.

Brabham's 1990 IMSA GTP car

Brabham dabbled in V8 Supercar drives in his native Australia throughout his career. He is still one of the few drivers to win his first race, Sandown 500 in 1993. He started eleven races for one victory.

Stock car racing

Brabham took two race victories in the International Race of Champions stock car series (1992 and 1993), both at Michigan. He made his only NASCAR Winston Cup Series start at the first ever Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis in 1994, driving for Michael Kranefuss. Brabham crashed in the second half of the race.

Personal life

He is the son of three-time Formula One World Champion Jack Brabham. He has two younger brothers; Gary and David. Geoff teamed with David to win the 1997 Bathurst 1000 in a BMW, becoming the only brothers to have combined to win the race. Although the most successful of the second generation of racing Brabhams, unlike his siblings he did not compete in World Championship Formula One.

Married to Roseina Brabham - a multi-time Jetski Champion - Brabham has retired from competition himself to focus on his son, Matthew Brabham's career who is also following in the family interest. After a successful karting career, moved into international open-wheel racing. Matthew set new records on his way to the USF2000 Championship and Pro Mazda IndyCar Ladder Series Championships. 22-year-old Matt made his Indianapolis 500 debut with an Australian owned team, PIRTEK Team Murray in 2016 finishing 22nd. He also competed in the Angie's List Grand Prix of Indianapolis in 2016, finishing 16th

Awards

He was inducted in the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2004.

Racing career

Brabham in 1990

American Open-Wheel racing results

Complete USAC Mini-Indy Series results

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Pos	Points
1978	David Psachie	PIR1	TRE1	MOS 12	MIL1 6	TEX	MIL2	OMS1	OMS2	TRE2 1	PIR2	13th	290
1979		TEX1 19	IRP 3	MIL1 3	POC 4	TEX2 5	MIL2 2	MIN1 6	MIN2 6			3rd	824

CART

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

Indianapolis 500

Brabham (#07) at the 1994 Brickyard 400.

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1989	Nissan Motorsport	Chip Robinson Arie Luyendyk	Nissan R89C	C1	250	DNF	DNF
1990	Nissan Performance Technology Inc.	Chip Robinson Derek Daly	Nissan R90CK	C1	251	DNF	DNF
1993	Peugeot Talbot Sport	Éric Hélary Christophe Bouchut	Peugeot 905 Evo 1B	C1	375	1st	1st

V8 Supercar results

Complete Bathurst 1000 results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1974	WA Fisher (Holdings) Pty Ltd	Bernie Haehnle	Mazda RX-3	2001 – 3000cc	151	8th	3rd
1975	B S Stillwell Ford & Co Pty Ltd	Mike Stillwell	Ford Escort RS2000	B	141	12th	5th
1977	John Goss Racing Pty Limited	Jack Brabham	Ford XC Falcon GS500 Hardtop	3001cc – 6000cc	141	18th	9th
1993	Peter Jackson Racing	David Parsons	Ford EB Falcon	A	154	6th	6th
1997	BMW Motorsport Australia	David Brabham	BMW 320i	A	161	1st	1st
1998	Longhurst Racing	Tony Longhurst	Ford EL Falcon	OC	157	8th	8th
1999	Ford Tickford Racing	Neal Bates	Ford EL Falcon		160	10th	10th
2000	Rod Nash Racing	Cameron McConville	Holden VT Commodore		105	DNF	DNF
2001	Steven Ellery Racing	Steven Ellery	Ford AU Falcon		161	7th	7th

Sandown 500 win

Year	Class	No	Team	Co-Drivers	Chassis	Tyres	Laps	Qual Pos
					Engine
1993	V8	35	Peter Jackson Racing	David Parsons	Ford EB Falcon	B	161	8
					Ford 5.0 L V8

References

• Driver Database stats
• Conrod Profile - V8 Supercar stats.
• Racing Reference - US Stats
• CART/USAC Results