Sir Jack to be feted at Phillip Island

PHILLIP ISLAND – Feb 17, 2014: The amazing life and unique achievements of Sir Jack Brabham will be celebrated in many ways at the 25th Anniversary Phillip Island Classic Festival of Motorsport from March 7-9 this year.

Sir Jack, who is patron of the Victorian Historic Racing Register, which organises the Phillip Island Historic meetings, is expected to be joined at this year’s Classic Festival by his 1966 World Championship winning Repco Brabham BT19, along with members of the Repco team that built its V8 engine.

Now 87, he will do a lap of honour of the 4.55km Grand Prix circuit and be feted by many of the drivers he competed against over the years, as well as by others who took part in his journey to win his three World F1 titles.

Up to a dozen Brabham racing cars from the 1960s will be amongst the estimated 500 Historic racing, Sports and Touring cars competing in this year’s classic, along with many rival cars from Brabham’s early racing years, including the Maybach I raced by his late arch-rival, Doug Whiteford.

As a prelude to the celebrations, the BT19 and many of the Grand Prix trophies and other memorabilia from his distinguished racing career were recently installed permanent, purpose-built home – The Sir Jack Brabham Annexe – at the VHRR’s Box Hill, Melbourne club rooms.

One of the largest items on display is a wall-size photograph of the start of the 1953 Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park, donated by the Australian Grand Prix Corporation, while the trophies include those from Brabham’s first Grand Prix victory at Monaco in 1959 and the trophy he received for winning the French Grand Prix at Reims the same year, when his stated goal – as always – was to “beat the Ferraris”.

Needless to say his lap of honour of the Phillip Island Grand Prix circuit at the ‘Classic’ will not be in a Ferrari!

The 2014 Phillip Island Classic Festival of Motor Sport presented by the VHRR is again being supported by Shannons, CoolDrive and Penrite, with additional support this year from Dutton Garage, Repco, Zagame, RDA Brakes and Trico.

Official practice and qualifying will now both take place on the Friday for the first time, making time for two races for each category on both the Saturday and Sunday of the weekend.

The 2014 Phillip Island Classic Festival of Motorsport will also celebrate Peter Brock’s 1973-74 Australian Touring Car Championships with his 1973 XU1, 1974 SLR5000 and 2003 Bathurst 24 Hour-winning 7-litre Holden Monaro 427C on display in the paddock.