Thread: Formula One world championship driving and drivers

The following prose-poem places Jack Brabham's story into a personal context.-Ron Price, Australia
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I was never that interested in car racing, racing teams, Formula One world championship driving and drivers. I have always had a low mechanical interest and aptitude. I never did well in basic woodwork and metalwork, what we used to call “shop” in high school and I had little interest in cars and mechanics, in motorcycles and, indeed, anything, any gadget or appliance with a lot of parts. If any of these things needed fixing it was off to the repair man.

Tonight, though, I watched with interest a brief life-story of Jack Brabham.(1) Brabham enlisted in the RAAF the year I was born, 1944. He was then 18. In 1959, the year I joined the Bahá'í Faith, Brabham won the World Championship in car racing, after winning the Monaco Grand Prix. Fifty years ago, then, this racing legend cemented his name in motorsport history by becoming the first Australian to be crowned Formula One world champion.

In 1962, the first year of my own travelling-pioneering away from my home town in Ontario, Brabham drove for his own team, the Brabham Racing Organization. The 1966 Jack earned a further place in motorsport history by becoming the first, and so far the only, driver to secure the F1 championship in a car of his own creation. It was a feat unlikely to be repeated. I graduated from McMaster university that year in May in sociology and for ten weeks that summer I sold ice-cream for the Good Humour Company. On average new employees with this famous ice-cream company lasted only two to three weeks because of the long hours. I worked an average of 85 hours per week. Good Humor became unprofitable beginning in 1968 and by then I was teaching primary school among the Inuit on Baffin Island. -Ron Price with thanks to 1ABC1, “Australian Story,” 8:00-8:30 p.m., 17 August 2009.

You were only a name on
the very periphery of my
life back then in the '60s,
Jack, along with Stirling
Moss and the many Grand
Prix around the world.....I
had my hands full with just
getting through my days...
my studies, my psycho---
emotional life, the embryo
of my career, my religion—
I was simply too busy, Jack,
to include you in my small
constellation of interests.

But:

You’ve become an Aussie hero,
Jack, gudonyer, Jack, gudonyer.

Ron Price
17 August 2009

In my early teens I was very interested in formula one racing and my heroes were Stirling Moss, Graham Hill and of course Jimmy Clark the flying Scot. Living in the USA I was also very interested in NASCAR racing and in that end of the sport my heroes were Glen "Fireball" Roberts and Joe Weatherly.

I was stunned when both of those guys got killed racing and in the same year IIRC.... but when Jimmy Clark was killed I was devastated. I didn't think it was possible at the time being a youngster who somehow thought that Clark being world champion and winning at Indianapolis somehow gave him immortality.

Formula one is not the same as it used to be many years ago. Nowadays it is more technics and fundings that makes the scores, not so much of the personal skills of the drivers. Sorry to say this.

I haven't watched F1 for years now. In fact i'd like to think that me and Mika Häkkinen gave up our F1 career at the same time - Mika as a driver and i as a tv watcher

Instead nowadays i watch MotoGp and various national and scandinavian RR races - both live or from TV. Planning to ride next year with my wife to watch live the last of the greats - Isle of Man TT.

Thanks for Your Replies...........Ron in Tasmania

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

When Jimmy Clark was killed I was devastated. I didn't think it was possible at the time being a youngster who somehow thought that Clark being world champion and winning at Indianapolis somehow gave him immortality.

Jimmy-
In a way, it does.

Those who perform significant feats leave an indelible mark on the minds of those who are affected.



Anyone ever watch racing news and they cut from one form of motorsport to F1?

It's disconcerting. It feels like they just sped the film up 30 to 50 percent.

Regardless of funding or technology, the capability of any human to pilot race cars of that caliber at that level of competition is astonishing.

This is an assessment from the limited experience of an amateur race car driver.

I have Written About "Racing," but all I can find in my computer-directory are topics involving: (a) racing-thoughts, (b) embracing various things in life and (c) tracing aspects of life. So, I think I'll leave this thread to others. Thanks, again, for your responses.-Ron in George Town, Tasmania