How Panoz almost missed his talisman

Do you prefer the McLaren F1 GTR or Panoz GTR-1? Both cars from the 1990s are fondly remembered today, but you probably haven’t thought twice about which one you would rather drive in the 1997 FIA GT Championship.

David Brabham was in that position and it seemed like an easy decision. The short-tail competition version of Gordon Murrays F1 had won the BPR Global GT Series in 1995 and 1996, while Brabham had won the All-Japan GT title with John Nielsen in the Lark McLaren team. The Panoz did not have the engine in the “right” place …

“I remember seeing an article about this front-engined GT in Autosport,” recalls Brabham. “I thought, ‘My dad showed everyone that the engine should be in the back. I’ll never drive one. ‘”

McLaren developed the long-tailed F1 GTR and competition boss David Clark appeared interested in closing a deal with Brabham, but negotiations did not go smoothly.

“David Prize” [in charge of the Panoz team] was on my back to drive the Panoz, ”adds Brabham, now 55. “When it came down to it, McLaren said, ‘We want you to drive, but we don’t pay.’ So I picked up the phone to Pricey. “

A deal was struck, but McLaren tried to contact Brabham while on vacation: “A fax came through with an offer of money. I said: ‘My word is my word’ and that I signed somewhere else. “

At first it seemed like Brabham had made a bad choice. While the McLaren won five of the eleven FIA GT races and Steve Soper / JJ Lehto narrowly missed the crown on Mercedes driver Bernd Schneider, the Panoz proved to be difficult. Together with Perry McCarthy, Brabham took just one podium on a rainy day at Sebring.

McLaren appeared to have been the better choice in 1997, winning four of the first five races in the FIA ​​GT Championship – only to retire at the end of the season

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That took a bit of luck too – having qualified only 12th, the DPR had timed the switch to rain tires perfectly and Brabham had advanced to third but didn’t look like he would stay there. A delayed Lehto “sometimes ate up to 10 seconds per lap in McCarthy’s lead,” reported Autosport, before the car caught fire.

“Lehto’s resignation meant McCarthy and Panoz stayed in third place, a remarkable result for a brand that was aiming, or perhaps hoping for, a single point from the US trip,” said Autosport. For his part, Brabham said the surprising result “feels like we’ve won the race today”.

“That [McLaren] Program lasted a year and then they retired so I picked the right horse “David Brabham

But amid the increasing dominance of Mercedes, McLaren withdrew in late 1997.

“This program lasted a year and then they retired, so I picked the right horse,” says Brabham. “The Panoz was fraught with problems, but up close I thought early on that it looked like a racing car and had potential.”

The Australian stayed with the Panoz for six years as the GTR-1 evolved into the open-top LMP Roadster and beyond.

He moved to DAMS in 1998 and fought the unequal battle against Mercedes in FIA GTs – he scored two podiums with Eric Bernard at Hockenheim and Dijon when Mercedes won all 10 races before the championship imploded – but it was America where Brabham got his greatest successes would achieve Panoz.

Brabham stayed with Panoz during his move to open prototypes, starting with the LMP-1 Roadster S in 1999

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In 1998 he won the GT class at Sebring together with Andy Wallace and together with Bernard finished second in the American Le Mans Series in 1999 with victories in Portland and Petit Le Mans (together with Wallace) over the Le Mans winner BMW V12 LMR The first of seven with the distinctive looking machine.

In 2001 and 2002, Brabham and Jan Magnussen inflicted unlikely defeats on the legendary Audi R8 twice, which didn’t detract from its reputation, and eventually left the program to join Bentley in 2003.

A string of minor mishaps meant he, Johnny Herbert and Mark Blundell missed out on Le Mans 24 Hours victory for the sister car with Tom Kristensen, but Brabham would finally mimic brother Geoff’s success with Peugeot by taking a long overdue overall victory achieved – with won the GT1 class honor with Aston Martin in 2007 and 2008 – also with Peugeot in 2009.

The Petit Le Mans victory in 1999 was one of the highlights in the racing history of Panoz

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