Australian Muscle Car – July 01, 2019

Bathurst

G

eoffBrabham’s

GreatRace

recordis notmuch

morethana footnote

in hisoverallcareer

ist ry, uti i st rtshedidclaimsix

topnishes,includingonevictory.Butthe

BathursteventwasneverreallyonBrabham’s

radar:growingupin Englandformostofthe

1960s(whileSirJackwasracingin F1)meant

Geoffhadlittlepersonalconnectionwiththe

Bathurstrace.PriortohisGreatRacedebut

in 1974hehadonlybeentoMountPanorama

once,foranEasterbikemeeting– andhis

rstexperienceofthetrackwasseeinga

sidecarridercrashingandbeingkilled...

1974:MazdaRX3withBernieHaehnle– 3rd

inclass(8thoutright)

“Itwasa fundealbecauseI’dneverdriven

anythingwitha roofovermyheaduntilthattime

andI feltlikeI adaptedprettygood.It wasjust

greatto goto Bathurstforthersttime.It wasa

uniquetrack,butI justtreatedit likeit wasjust

anothertrack.It didn’tstandoutasthepinnacle,

if youlike,butstillI appreciatethefactthatit is

uniquein theworldof motorracingandthefact

thatyou’ddoneit wasprettycool.”

1975:EscortRS2000withMikeStillwell– 5th

inclass(12thoutright)

MikeStillwell’sfatherBibandJackwerefriends

fromtheiropenwheelerdaysin the’60s,butthe

drivecameaboutfromthefriendshipbetween

MichaelandGeoffas teenagers. Michael had

stayedwiththeBrabhams in England and

workedat Brabham in the late-’60s.

1977:FalconXCwith Jack Brabham – 18th

“I wasracingF3in England, so I just  ew in

fortherace.It wasa big change for sure. I was

justracingF3andto come back into a car that

doesn’tstop,doesn’t handle, and had a lot more

power,obviouslyit was a challenge, but I just

treatedit asthat.You have to try and adapt to

differentthings.I was happy with how I went,

butwehada fewissues in the race and I didn’t

driveit a lotoverthe weekend because of that.

It wasfunandit was a challenge for sure.”

1993:FalconEBwith David ‘Skippy’ Parsons

• 6th(rstFalcon)
  “Welosta lapstraight off the bat. Unfortunately
  Skippygottangled up with somebody in the
  rstcorneranddamaged the front and had to
  comein andchange it. It’s always tough when
  yougoovera lapdown on the  rst lap of the
  race.You’reprettymuch out of contention and
  nowyou’vejustgot to thrash around and do
  thebestthatyoucan and see what happens at
  theendof therace. Back then the cars weren’t
  asreliableastheyare today and you still could
  comebackandgood a good result from other

1974

1977

1975