This title covers the career of Jack Brabham, which saw him win three Formula 1 Driver's World Championship titles, multiple F2 Championships, become the world's first dominant manufacturer of single-seater racing cars and the first driver to win a World Title in a car bearing his own name.
This book fills an important gap in the history of top-level motor racing during the historic era of the 1960s and 70s. The author was at the center of it all, first as Sir Jack Brabham's right-hand man during his leadership of the Cooper team, and later when he formed his own Brabham Racing Organization. Subsequently, when Phil Kerr joined his great friend Bruce McLaren, to become joint managing director of an ever expanding company, which was to achieve unrivalled success in Can-Am racing as well as being at the forefront of Formula One, he and his colleagues had to cope with the tragedy of the founder's untimely death while testing a Can-Am car at Goodwood. The author's description of how the shattered team was saved and ultimately restored by the bravery of Bruce's co-driver Denny Hulme, already sidelined by agonizing burns to his hands, is a poignant highlight of his story. Includes a balanced mix of racing and off-duty pictures, many being seen for the first time and 15 reproductions of paintings by the renowned artist Michael Turner.
Since 1950, fifteen Australians and nine New Zealanders have raced in world championship Formula One, the pinnacle of motor racing. Three - Jack Brabham, Denny Hulme and Alan Jones - have won the world title. Two have died in the attempt without ever facing the world championship starters' lights. So few drivers make it to Formula One. Ever fewer succeed in the fastest and most challenging four-wheeled sport of all. Now John Smailes, author of the bestselling Climbing the Mountain, Race Across the World, Mount Panorama and Speed Kings, gives us the definitive story of our involvement with Formula One, from the pioneer days in the aftermath of World War II, to the championship glory of Brabham, Hulme and Jones, the grit and determination of Mark Webber, and Australia's current Formula One star, the irrepressible Daniel Ricciardo, all the way to potential champions of the future like Oscar Piastri. With over 150 stunning photographs, and interviews with drivers past and present, as well as the engineers, managers and team owners behind the scenes, this is the must-have book for every Australian and New Zealand fan of Formula One.
A newly revised edition of the classic account of Vlad the Impaler--just in time for Halloween--now includes entries from Bram Stoker's recently discovered diaries, the amazing tale of Nicolae Ceausescu's attempt to make Vlad a national hero, and an examination of recent adaptations in fiction, stage and screen. 70 b&w illustrations.
The story of Australia's greatest motoring hero, and the dynasty he founded. Sir Jack Brabham was unique in the world of motor racing. He was the boy from Sydney who took on the elite of motor racing and won - not only three major F1 championships but the last one in a car he had built in his home country to his own specifications. To those who saw him on the podium, Jack Brabham might have seemed glorious and triumphant, but his story is full of pain, risk, snubs, endurance, wins, and losses. And only now is he gaining the recognition he deserves as someone who revolutionised Formula One. In 2017 he was inducted into the F1 Hall of Fame. Racing with greats including Stirling Moss, Jackie Stewart and Bernie Ecclestone, he revolutionised Formula One. He also encouraged others, such as Bruce McLaren. But he remained an outsider - a colonial. Now his sons want to revive the Brabham name and the Brabham brand. With interviews from those who raced with and against 'Black Jack', those who built cars with him, those who loved with him, those who crossed him, this is a brilliant and vivid portrait of a motor genius and the racing dynasty he founded.
The fascinating, definitive story of Australia and New Zealand's quest to win the world's greatest motor race Winning the Indianapolis 500, the greatest spectacle in motorsport, has been a quest for Australians and New Zealanders since the first race in 1911. Seventeen have tried and two have succeeded: Scott Dixon in 2008 and Will Power in 2018. Rupert Jeffkins, Australia's original speed king, entered the first Indy 500 and on his second attempt in 1912 came within five kilometres of victory. He and Italian Ralph De Palma created legend when they pushed their car to the finish line after it blew up while leading. Speed Kings tells Jeffkins' full story for the first time. The lure of the Brickyard, paved with 3.2 million bricks, has drawn champions from both sides of the Tasman. Sir Jack Brabham, his son Geoffrey and grandson Matthew have each tried to win. So have the 'big three' of New Zealand motor racing: Bruce McLaren, Denny Hulme and Chris Amon. Now Scott McLaughlin looks set to become the next driver from down under to chase American motor racing's greatest prize. Indy doesn't offer up victory lightly. Blinding speed - nudging 380 km/h and averaging 280 km/h over 500 miles - makes the Brickyard one of the most precarious racetracks in the world. Forty-two drivers have died attempting the 500. Speed Kings tells the story of the Australian and New Zealand drivers, team owners, engineers, even commentators who've made the Brickyard their quest.
In his trademark straight-talking, no-nonsense style Mark Webber reveals his amazing life on and off the Formula One race track in Aussie Grit. Mark Webber was at the centre of one of the most captivating chapters in the history of Formula One. In 2010, while racing for Red Bull, he and his team mate Sebastian Vettel went head to head for the World Championship. There could only be one winner. Since retiring from Formula One Mark has concentrated on endurance racing, including the legendary Le Mans 24 Hour race. He hit the front pages of newspapers around the world in December 2014 when he slammed into the barricades in the final round of the FIA World Endurance Championship in South America, and was lucky to escape with his life. But the controversy of his relationship on and off the track with Vettel, who went on to win multiple world titles, has never been far beneath the surface. Here, for the first time, Webber tells the inside story of one of Formula One's most intriguing battles – it is a story that goes to the heart of why the sport is loved by millions of fans around the world. From his first taste of karting to his F1 debut in 2002, scoring Minardi's first points in three years at the Australian Grand Prix, through to his first win with Red Bull at the 2009 German Grand Prix and the year he should have been crowned World Champion. Mark Webber's journey to the top of Formula One was every bit as determined and committed as his racing. Aussie Grit is his searingly honest story. Includes a foreword by Formula One legend Sir Jackie Stewart.
Snakes & Devilstraces the turbulent history of the Singapore Grand Prix which ran from 1961-1973. It tells the story in a pictorial chronological format that is both entertaining and engaging. Through extensive research and copious interviews with drivers, sponsors and organisers across three continents, author Eli Solomon has produced the authoritative guide to the original Singapore Grand Prix. Included in this volume are rare archival and private photographs, many of which have never been published before.