Another Australian sporting legend has died; the Sydney Morning Herald reports:
Three-time formula one world champion Sir Jack Brabham has died, aged 88.
Brabham, a former Royal Australian Air Force mechanic, began his motorsport career on Australian speedway dirt tracks in the late 1940s.
He headed to Britain and joined the Cooper Racing Team, with which he won the 1959 and 1960 formula one championships.
But it was his own Brabham racing cars - designed and engineered with friend and fellow Australian Ron Tauranac - that led to him winning the 1966 championship.
Brabham is the only person to have won the formula one world championship in his own car.
Sir Jack Brabham was an absolute icon of Australian motorsport, and of the Australian sporting landscape in general. It's been a bad week for Australian sport with AFL legend Tommy Hafey and rugby league legend Reg Gasnier having also passed away. Tommy Hafey's funeral takes place this afternoon at the MCG, the spiritual home of the AFL.
The term "legend" is thrown around loosely, but each of the three named above were legends in their own sports. They will all be sadly missed, and we send our condolences to those who survive them.
