David Brabham will attend this year's Goodwood Festival of Speed in celebratory mood, now with two reasons to reflect positively on the 2009 season as it reaches its halfway point on Lord March's front lawn.
The Australian will be reunited with his Le Mans 24 Hours-winning Peugeot 908 HDi FAP at the 3-5 July event, having already agreed to attend in celebration of the 50th anniversary of father Sir Jack's first Formula One world championship title. In order to mark the historic occasion, Brabham Jr will drive both the Peugeot and a 1959 Cooper Climax T51 up Goodwood Hill and introduce the 50th anniversary merchandise collection.
A stalwart of the prestigious Goodwood event, Brabham returns to the 2009 Festival of Speed just weeks after clinching outright victory at Le Mans at his 16th attempt, securing a hat-trick of consecutive class wins at the world's most famous endurance race.
“This is an important year for the entire Brabham family and what a year it's turning out to be for me," he said, "I can't think of a better way to follow my memorable Le Mans victory than driving the Team Peugeot Total car on the historic hillclimb.
“Equally as moving will be the chance to drive an F1 car from my father's era of racing, a 1959 Cooper T51 entered by Michael Delaney — the sister car to my father's 1959 Monaco Grand Prix winning car. I am extremely grateful for this opportunity as I know my father is disappointed that he cannot be here to see it himself.”
As the current LMP1 leader in the American Le Mans Series, the Australian usual racing schedule with Patrón Highcroft Racing rarely allows him to drive in front of his adopted home country fans, but his visit this year will be another highlight in what is turning out to be a most fitting celebration of his father's legendary career.
“I am really thrilled to have the Le Mans-winning Peugeot 908 HDi FAP here at Goodwood, and to have David reunited with the car just weeks after his victory in this year's 24-hour race," event founder the Earl of March commented, "It is also great that David achieved this fabulous victory in his father Jack's anniversary year.”
No merchandise range of any kind has been officially made available by the Brabham family before, meaning that Festival of Speed visitors will be some of the first to buy items from the new collection, which includes never seen before limited edition signed memorabilia. as well as retro apparel. Brabham intends to visit the merchandise stand between his driving duties throughout the Festival weekend.
