|
In the Sebring race of 1959, the problem that Jack Brabham had was that he was running out of fuel. Bruce McLaren hesitated to pass him but Brabham waved him through because he knew the only way he could fail to win the title was if Tony Brooks won, so wanted McLaren to make sure he stayed ahead. McLaren then narrowly held off Trintignant for his first win and Brooks came through to finish third. Jack Brabham didn’t need to finish to win the championship but, just in case, he pushed his car uphill for a quarter of a mile to finish fourth, with marshals stopping the crowd from running onto the track and helping him because then he would have been disqualified.
Another interesting thing about that race was that Tony Brooks’ car wasn’t actually damaged after the contact with Wolfgang von Trips. But he had promised himself he would never race a car that he wasn’t absolutely sure wasn’t damaged, so he pitted anyway to make sure. His pace after that was enough to ensure he would have won the race and the championship had he not pitted. But Tony Brooks chose life over the championship.
|