Brabham soon branched out into his own business selling motorbikes, which he bought and repaired for sale, using his parents ' back veranda as his workshop.

Brabham waved him on frantically, and McLaren resumed speed just soon enough to hold his lead through the last turn and cross the line less than a second ahead of Trintignant, who had set the race's fastest lap only three laps from the end.

Denny Hulme led Jack Brabham away from the start, but the Australian soon spun, handing second place to Surtees, but by lap 21 had managed to regain 2nd.

On lap two, Gurney moved past Clark for second place, and soon after, Hulme moved ahead of Amon and then his team leader, Brabham.

When the racing got under way, Carlos Pace led from pole in a Brabham 1 – 2 but was soon passed by Jody Scheckter and Carlos Reutemann after braking problems and Patrick Depailler soon climbed to 3rd.

The top six cars were all running very close together, and Rosberg soon found himself under increasing pressure from Laffite, who was in turn being hounded by Jean-Pierre Jarier's Ligier and Patrese's Brabham.

A similar suction fan was used in Formula 1 eight years later for the 1978 Swedish Grand Prix, by the Brabham BT46B, but was banned soon after.

In the early 1950s, it seemed as if every aspiring young British racing driver began behind the wheel of a Cooper, and Cooper's Formula One cars were driven by the legendary drivers of the time — Jack Brabham, Stirling Moss, Maurice Trintignant, Bruce McLaren.

When the leaders came up to lap Hill's teammate, American Richie Ginther, on lap 61, Hill's BRM seemed to have much less trouble getting by than the pursuing Ferrari and Brabham did.

Hunt, who as the Champion was in the photo shoot along with the Fangio, Sir Jack Brabham, Stewart, Alan Jones, Niki Lauda, as well as current drivers Senna and Nelson Piquet, claimed during the race commentary that Prost had been beaten down by Senna after losing the championship to him in controversial circumstances and seemed to be " a driver who was under a form of mental collapse ".

Brabham describes Tauranac as " absolutely the only bloke I'd have gone into partnership with ".

One month after his 18th birthday on 19 May 1944 Brabham enlisted into the Royal Australian Air Force ( RAAF ).

At the Portuguese Grand Prix at Monsanto Park, Brabham was chasing race leader Moss when a backmarker moved over on him and launched the Cooper into the air.

Brabham, who first won the Grand Prix in 1955 in an obsolete sports-bodied Cooper T40 Bristol he had brought home from his first foray into English racing, would test new developments for Cooper during the European winter, beginning a flood of Cooper-Climax Grand Prix machinery into Australia and New Zealand before Brabham started building his own cars, as well as the appearance of Lotus chassis as well, finally killing off the Australian ' specials '.

The engine was subsequently developed into a full-sized 2. 5 L Formula One unit and Jack Brabham won the World Championship of Drivers in both 1959 and 1960 driving FPF powered Coopers.

The full Grand Prix circuit begins on the Brabham Straight, an off-camber, slightly curved stretch, before plunging into the right-hander at Paddock Hill Bend.

The win was the first of the season for Scuderia Ferrari and moved Brooks into second in the championship pointscore, five points behind Brabham.

Phil Hill and Graham Hill crashed into each other on lap 6, whilst Brabham had an enormous somersaulting crash from which he emerged unscathed.

As Brabham took the early lead into Turn One, ahead of Gurney and Moss, the Riverside radio and PA announcer could only call their names and utter, " Wow.

At the start, Brabham led the field off the grid and into the first corner, but before the end of the first lap, Moss had moved by into the lead.

Gurney passed Spence to join Hill and Brabham in a three-way battle for third place, until Hill moved into second place by getting around Surtees on lap 31.

Gurney pulled right up on the BRM's tailpipes, but in his zeal, he overdid a corner and allowed teammate Brabham by into second.

Hill's wide line out of the corner again carried him to the edge of the track, and with Brabham on his left, he forced the two-time Champion off and into a slow 360 across the wet grass.

At the flag, Bandini jumped from the second row into the lead, ahead of Clark, Richie Ginther, Brabham, Surtees, Jackie Stewart, Hill and Denny Hulme.

At the start, the Lotus teammates jumped into the lead, and at the end of the first lap, Hill led Clark, Gurney, Brabham, Amon, Hulme and Bruce McLaren.

Brabham had to break off his pursuit of Courage when his engine began sputtering for lack of fuel, and he was forced to pit on lap 93, allowing Surtees to get through into third place.

On lap 22 Beltoise, who in the meantime went into fourth, retired with transmission problems ; on the same lap Brabham passed Amon into second place.

But the unbelievable happened: moving off the racing line to avoid a slower car at Gazomètre ( Gasworks ), the very last corner of the last lap, Brabham slid on the dusty surface and went straight into the straw bales, handing the victory to Rindt ( a victory greeted by a big jump of joy by Colin Chapman ).

Brabham was confident he could do better than Cooper, and in late 1959 he asked Tauranac to come to the UK and work with him, initially producing upgrade kits for Sunbeam Rapier and Triumph Herald road cars at his car dealership, Jack Brabham Motors, but with the long-term aim of designing racing cars.

The new company would compete with Cooper in the market for customer racing cars ; as Brabham was still employed by Cooper, Tauranac produced the first MRD car, for the entry level Formula Junior class, in secrecy.

A rear-engined T51 of the type Brabham used to win his first world championship. On arriving in Europe on his own in early 1955, Brabham based himself in the UK, where he bought another Cooper to race in national events.

Visits to the Cooper factory for parts led to a friendship with Charlie and John Cooper, who told the story that after many requests for a drive with the factory team, Brabham was given the keys to the transporter taking the cars to a race.

Brabham briefly and unsuccessfully campaigned his own second hand Formula One Maserati 250F during 1956, but his season was saved by drives for Cooper in sports cars and Formula Two, the junior category to Formula One.

In 1957, Brabham drove another mid-engined Cooper, again only fitted with a 2-litre engine, at the Monaco Grand Prix.

In 1959, Cooper obtained 2. 5-litre engines for the first time and Brabham put the extra power to good use by winning his first world championship race at the season-opening Monaco Grand Prix after Jean Behra's Ferrari and Stirling Moss's Cooper failed.

Brabham was among those up until 1 am the morning before the race working on the Cooper team cars.

Despite his success with Cooper, Brabham was sure he could do better.

He considered buying Cooper in partnership with Roy Salvadori and then in late 1959 he asked his friend Ron Tauranac to come to the UK and work with him, initially producing upgrade kits for Sunbeam Rapier and Triumph Herald road cars at his car dealership, Jack Brabham Motors, but with the long-term aim of designing racing cars.

Brabham continued to drive for Cooper, but on the long flight back from the 1960 season-opening Argentine Grand Prix, he had a heart-to-heart with John Cooper.

Brabham helped design the more advanced Cooper T53, including advice from Tauranac.

The same year, Brabham entered the famous Indianapolis 500 oval race for the first time in a modified version of the Formula One Cooper.

Brabham and Tauranac set up a company called Motor Racing Developments Ltd. ( MRD ), which initially produced customer racing cars, while Brabham himself continued to race for Cooper.

Brabham left Cooper in 1962 to drive for his own team: the Brabham Racing Organisation, using cars built by Motor Racing Developments.