The 24 Hours of Daytona is the traditional opening of the American racing season and despite dominating IMSA GT Championship four years running, Geoff Brabham failed to win one of the hallmark sportscar events globally.
Brabham’s career started in Formula Ford and Formula 2 in Australia before moving to the United Kingdom where he aimed to climb the ladder to the top just like his father Jack did decades earlier.
Moving to America in the early 1980s proved a masterstroke as Brabham duly won the Super Vee title and a couple of Can-Am championships before transitioning to CART leading to 10 starts in the Indianapolis 500 finishing a best of fourth in 1983.
However, Brabham’s career trajectory led him to Nissan’s high-tech IMSA GTP program in 1988, which began a run of four titles in a row.
Nissan was in a transition in phase following the dropping of the Datsun name and installed Electramotive Engineering as its American racing development arm. Nissan provided the VG30ET, which was modified for IMSA GTP competition and Lola Cars International built the chassis.
Debuting in three years before Brabham joined the team, Nissan hit its stride when the second generation driver arrived.
Gains were made by Electramotive in the turbo technology providing an edge compared to Nissan’s naturally aspirated rivals allowing Brabham to win the 1988 season by a large margin.
It started a run of four titles for the Australian, but Electramotive was forced to work hard to build its reliability during endurance events and in 1989 the 12 Hours of Sebring victory featuring Brabham as part of the driver line-up quelled those concerns.
However, despite the success achieved by Brabham, a 24 Hours of Daytona victory failed to occur.
Brabham finished a best of second in 1991 as Nissan achieved its maiden win a year later with an all-Japanese line-up.
Returning to Australia to contest the Australian Super Touring Championship alongside Paul Morris as part of the factory BMW squad, Brabham also became a reliable hired gun for Supercars teams in the late-1990s before supporting son Matthew’s racing career.