Repco is set to honour one of Formula 1 racing’s most important figures during 2026, with three Brabham-centric anniversaries on the calendar in the coming year.
Marking 60 years since legendary Aussie driver Sir Jack Brabham won his third F1 Drivers’ World Championship, it importantly marks his racing team’s first Constructors’ World Championship – a feat which remains the first and only time a driver won the F1 title in a car of their own make.
The car that took him to those titles in 1966 was the Repco-powered Brabham BT19. Designed by Ron Tauranac, it was built by Motor Racing Developments (‘MRD’), Brabham and Tauranac’s own company, and raced by their Brabham Racing Organisation.
Powered by the Repco RB620 3.0-litre SOHC V8 engine, which was designed, developed and produced by Repco in Melbourne, only one example of the Repco Brabham BT19 was produced and competed in the 1966 and ’67 seasons.
“Sir Jack Brabham and the Repco Brabham BT19 are powerful emblems of Australian capability and culture,” says Wayne Bryant, chief merchandise and growth officer at Repco’s parent company GPC Asia Pacific.
“Jack Brabham’s mastery as an F1 driver, constructor and team owner remains unmatched to this day.
“The Repco Brabham BT19 that powered him to these extraordinary achievements nearly 60 years ago stands tall amongst Australia’s greatest sporting icons.”
To acknowledge Sir Jack Brabham’s 1966 accomplishments in the car he named the ‘Old Nail’, Repco will celebrate these three anniversaries at a series of events throughout 2026, his centenary year.
These events will allow people to see the car up close and being driven, the first of which will be at the F1 Exhibition opening this weekend, 29 November 2025 at the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre, where the BT19 will star as one of five special F1 racing cars on show.
Australia’s most successful driver, Sir Jack Brabham AO OBE (1926-2014) was Australia’s most successful Formula 1 driver.
The first Aussie to win the Drivers’ World Championship, he claimed victory three times in 1959, 1960, and 1966. Across that span, he also won 14 Grand Prix races.
Respected as an intense competitor across his 23-year racing career, he was also regarded as an ingenious constructor alongside engineer and designer Ron Tauranac.
Sir Jac Brabham was knighted in 1979 for services to motorsport, becoming the first F1 driver to receive a knighthood, with Sir Stirling Moss, Sir Jackie Stewart, and current driver Sir Lewis Hamilton the only others to have received the honour.
