Geoff Brabham

Geoffrey John 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 Brabham raced successfully in CART early in his career, finishing eighth 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

Brabham's 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. His brother, 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 teammates 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 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 Brabham 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 jet-ski champion, Brabham has retired from competition himself to focus on his son Matthew's racing career. After a successful karting career, Matthew moved into international open-wheel racing and the Road to Indy ladder; he is also a three-time Stadium Super Trucks champion.

Awards Brabham was inducted in the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2004. In 2014, Brabham was assigned as the chief director of Nissan and its developer Nismo.

Racing record

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 MIL1 TEX MIL2 OMS1 OMS2 TRE2 PIR2 13th 290 1979 TEX1 IRP MIL1 POC TEX2 MIL2 MIN1 MIN2 3rd 824

Complete USAC Championship Car results Year 1 2 3 4 5 6 Pos Points 1981-82 INDY5 POC2 ILL DUQ ISF INDY28 2nd 1,310 1982–83 ISF DSF NAZ INDY 4th 600 1983-84 DSF INDY33 38th 5

CART (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

Indianapolis 500

Touring/Sports Cars

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

V8 Supercar results Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Final pos Points 1999 Ford Tickford RacingECKADL PTHPHIHDVSANCDRSYM WIN OPR QLDBAT 31st 360 2000 Larkham Motor SportRod Nash RacingPHIPTHADL ECKHDVCAN QLDWINOPKCDR QLDSAN BAT NC 0 2001 Steven Ellery RacingPHIADL ECKHDVCANPTHCDROPKQLD WINBAT PUK SAN 36th 565

Complete Bathurst 1000 results Year Car# Team Co-drivers Car Class Laps 1974 31 WA Fisher (Holdings) Pty Ltd Bernie Haehnle Mazda RX-3 2001 – 3000cc 151 8th 3rd 1975 36 B S Stillwell Ford & Co Pty Ltd Mike Stillwell Ford Escort RS2000 B 141 12th 5th 1977 4 John Goss Racing Pty Limited Jack Brabham Ford XC Falcon GS500 Hardtop 3001cc – 6000cc 141 18th 9th 1993 35 Peter Jackson Racing David Parsons Ford EB Falcon A 154 6th 6th 1997* 83 BMW Motorsport Australia David Brabham BMW 320i A 161 1st 1st 1998 25 Longhurst Racing Tony Longhurst Ford EL Falcon OC 157 8th 8th 1999 6 Ford Tickford Racing Neal Bates Ford AU Falcon 160 10th 10th 2000 54 Rod Nash Racing Cameron McConville Holden VT Commodore 105 DNF DNF 2001 31 Steven Ellery Racing Steven Ellery Ford AU Falcon 161 7th 7th

Super Touring race

Complete Sandown 500 results Year Car# Team Co-drivers Car Class Laps 1993 35 Peter Jackson Racing David Parsons Ford EB Falcon V8 161 1st 1st 1994 23 Diet Coke Racing Paul Morris Holden VP Commodore V8 94 NC NC 1998 25 Longhurst Racing Tony Longhurst Ford EL Falcon OC 7 DNF DNF

Complete Australian Super Touring Championship results Year Team Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 DC Pts 1995 Diet Coke BMW Motorsport BMW 318i PHI1 PHI2 ORA1 ORA2 SYM1 SYM2 CAL1 CAL2 MAL1 MAL2 LAK1 LAK2 WIN1 WIN2 EAS1 EAS2 2nd 232 1996 BMW Motorsport BMW 318i AMA1 AMA2 LAK1 LAK2 AMA1 AMA2 MAL1 MAL2 WIN1 WIN2 PHI1 PHI2 LAK1 LAK2 ORA1 ORA2 4th 114 1997 BMW Motorsport BMW 320i LAK1 LAK2 PHI1 PHI2 CAL1 CAL2 AMA1 AMA1 WIN1 WIN2 MAL1 MAL2 LAK1 LAK2 AMA1 AMA2 2nd 171

NASCAR (key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Winston Cup Series NASCAR Winston Cup Series results Year Team No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Pts Ref 1994 Kranefuss-Haas Racing 07 Ford DAY CAR RCH ATL DAR BRI NWS MAR TAL SON CLT DOV POC MCH DAY NHA POC TAL IND GLN MCH BRI DAR RCH DOV MAR NWS CLT CAR PHO ATL 76th 49