An award presentation brought Ron Hornig and Geoff Brabham together, another reminder of how small the racing world can be when considering Hornig hails from Laramie, Wyoming, and Brabham is Australian.
Brabham was presenting the “Sir Jack Brabham Award” for the best-prepared Brabham race car to Hornig during last year’s SVRA Brickyard Vintage Racing Invitational at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Although an integral part of three generations of Brabham racing, Geoff informed Hornig the family had only ever owned one Brabham car and he had driven a Brabham only once.
“I thought to myself, ‘That’s not right,’” said Hornig, 70.
The two men share a passion for cars.
Brabham, 64, is the son of a three-time Formula One champion, known as “Black Jack.” The elder Brabham’s 2014 death inspired the SVRA award. Geoff had a lengthy career, including 10 Indianapolis 500 starts with best finishes of fourth in 1983 and fifth in 1981. And Geoff’s 22-year-old son, Matthew, just raced in his first Indianapolis 500 and finished 22nd.
Hornig’s grandfather had a Studebaker dealership and his father sold auto parts.
“I’ve just always been around cars my whole life,” Hornig said.
Two of Hornig’s proudest possessions are a pair of 1971 yellow Brabham BT 35 Formula Three cars. He bought the first one in France in 2004. It wasn’t until five years later that he learned there was another and took him two more years to locate it.
“I found it on a wall in a Swedish museum,” he said.
The goal of one day reuniting both cars on track at the same time for the first time since 1971 became more than just a reality this week. Brabham agreed to drive Hornig’s No. 6 car, and did more than that. He qualified first for two Saturday races in the third Brickyard Vintage Racing Invitational.
“I’m enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would,” said Brabham, who aside from last year’s Legends race had not competed since 2001. “This was intriguing because I had never really driven one in anger.”
Brabham and Hornig qualified 1-2 for the first race and 1-3 for the second. Matthew is on hand to offer advice on the IMS 14-turn, 2.439-mile road course.
“It’s obviously pretty fun to see him doing some laps,” Matthew said. “I think at first, he was a bit worried about how it was all going to go. Once he’s gotten into a rhythm, it’s all starting to come back to him. He looks good. He’s having fun.”
Hornig actually experienced some last-minute anxiety, too. The cost to restore one of these vehicles ranges from $50,000 to $70,000, he said, and was performed by J.D. McDermott of Front Range Motorsports in Aurora, Colorado.
“Ron was very nervous Wednesday morning about having somebody else driving one of his cars,” McDermott said. “After he got out there and started chasing Geoff around, he decided he needed to go faster. He’s having a good time.”
Geoff Brabham qualified about 2.5 seconds quicker for the first race and more than one second ahead of Bruce Hamilton, who is driving a Brabham BT36 for K-Hill Motorsports, in the second race.
“These cars are quite quick and they’ve got good grip,” Brabham said. “When I first went out Wednesday, I thought I had never driven a race car in my whole life before. By the time I got to the end of the day, it really was a flashback. I was having fun.
“All those sensations that I had totally forgotten about are starting to re-emerge. It’s a bit scary really.”
A racer scared?
“I don’t mean scared driving,” Geoff said. “I just mean scared that I might enjoy it too much.”
