Goodyear and Brabham Automotive have announced a joint global partnership to collaborate across racing and road car developments, reigniting a winning partnership that began in 1965.
The Brabham BT62 marks the iconic names return to racing, which will make its debut at Brands Hatch in November at the Britcar ‘Into the Night’ race.
This event gives a flavour of Le Mans-style endurance racing and appropriately, Brands Hatch is the very circuit where Jack Brabham took his Brabham-Repco BT19 to British Grand Prix glory 53 years ago.
The joint development work rekindles a historic partnership between the two companies, which resulted in 26 Formula One Grand Prix victories. Jack Brabham won the 1966 F1 World Championship in a Goodyear shod Brabham-Repco, the iconic BT19. This was a historic moment as it marked the first, and never to be repeated, title for a driver in a car of his own construction and bearing his own name.
Denny Hulme made it a back-to-back championship success for Brabham and Goodyear in 1967, before Brabham stars such as Carlos Reutemann, Niki Lauda and Carlos Pace wore the iconic Goodyear cap on the top step of the podium in the seventies. In 1981, Nelson Piquet clinched the World Championship at the final round in Las Vegas after switching his Brabham to Goodyear mid-season.
“Goodyear and Brabham’s combined successes in motorsport are iconic," commented David Brabham, director of Brabham Automotive. "The partnership historically brought an incredible amount of success in Formula 1 and Endurance Racing and we look to continue this winning legacy through Brabham Automotive, the BT62 and future car variants.
"The continued commitment shown by Goodyear globally in motorsport means it is perfect timing for the two marques to join forces as we continue our road to Le Mans."
Dan Marks, Commercial Director at Brabham Automotive added: "Goodyear and Brabham enjoyed success together over four decades in F1. To reignite this technical collaboration is exciting. We’ve chosen to work with Goodyear as they have the tire technology to support our goal of achieving the highest levels of performance on both the road and track."
Brabham aims to compete in WEC's hypercar category in 2020.
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