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As the first Formula One driver to ever receive knighthood, Sir Jack Brabham's death, age 88, carves a deep wound. While he will be forever referred to as a three-time world champion – and the only driver to have won the title on two feet rather than four wheels – more than anything, the Australian racer will be remembered as one of life's good guys, a tenacious competitor that truly embodied the value of sportsmanship.
After serving with the Royal Australian Air Force as a flight mechanic, Brabham's racing career began on the Aussie dirt in 1949, piloting a car he'd hand-built with a friend. His knack for controlling a midget on the loose surface helped propel him to Europe, where he hooked up with race car builder John Cooper (the very one that conceived the famed Mini Cooper). Brabham continued racing in Cooper's cars, and while doing so, helped develop the company's Bobtail mid-engine racer, a machine that was destined for Formula One.
While all other race cars featured the engine in front of the driver, Cooper's pioneering concept placed the motor behind the driver. However it never fulfilled its true potential until 1959 when Brabham won his first world title. It wasn't without drama, though, as with just 500 yards to the checkered flag at the United States Grand Prix in Sebring, his Cooper-Climax ran out of fuel. Unwilling to give in, Brabham pushed the car across the line on foot, claiming his first world championship ahead of Tony Brooks and Sir Stirling Moss.
Jack Brabham's Cooper-Climax at the 1961 Indianapolis 500

That title was backed up in 1960, and in 1961, Cooper and Brabham brought the rear-engined revolution to the Indianapolis 500. Despite being powered by a 2.7-liter engine with just 268 bhp, fighting the front-engined roadsters and their 430 bhp 4.5-liters, Brabham and his Cooper-Climax Type T54 ran as high as third before an unscheduled pit stop dropped them to ninth. Just a few years later, Cooper's genius rubbed off, and the 500's entire 33 car field raced aboard rear-engined machines. In 1962, Brabham created his own team, and in 1966, he became the only driver in history to win a championship driving for himself. Despite his achievements, the Australian is often overlooked when judging F1's greats. According to Sir Stirling Moss, arguably the greatest to never to win a world championship, that should not be the case:
"You'd always know when Jack was on a charge because he'd crouch down and almost disappear within the cockpit," said Moss. "Tail-out, broadsiding, showering me with gravel and tuffets from the verge... You could take the Aussie out of the dirt tracks but you couldn't take the dirt tracks out of the Aussie."