BRABHAM DECLARES INTENTION TO RACE AGAIN AFTER GOODWOOD CRASH

July 7th 2014

TRIPLE WORLD CHAMPION SIR JACK BRABHAM HAS

vowed to race on, despite spending four days in St Richard’s Hospital, Chichester, following a major accident in the Glover Trophy 3-litre Formula One feature at nearby Goodwood ‘s Motor Circuit Revival meeting on September 19. The 73-year-old Australian cracked three ribs and damaged a vertebra in the 100mph backwards impact when he crashed PacWest Champcar team owner Bruce McCaw’s McLaren BRM M5A after colliding with fellow Formula One veteran Jackie Oliver’s Lotus 49 at the exit of

St Mary’s corner.13rabham, who was unconscious in the wreck for some while told Goodwood organiser the Earl of March, wants to compete next year.

Brabham was fortunate to escape facial injuries having discarded the visor of his open-face helmet which was cracked in the shunt early in the race. A scare in the RAC TT Celebration, an hour earlier, when a rear wheel came off the AC Cobra he was driving, mirrored an F2 testing incident at Goodwood in the ’60s. Despite media speculation, there has as yet been no advice that Goodwood, which is licenced

by the MSA (British motorsport’s governing body) thus conforms to its prescribed safety standards, will be obliged to alter its run-off areas on the approach to Lavant Corner, where Brabham crashed. Speeds at Goodwood certainly haven’t slowed in the intervening 30 years; a fact underlined by the breaking of the race lap record by Geoff Farmer in the ex-Jo Siffert Lotus 49. Farmer shaved threetenths of a second of the best time of 1m20.4s jointly set by Jim Clark and Jackie Stewart at the last ever Fl race at Goodwood in 1965. MP