Brabham “Not Going to Rush” GTE Program

David Brabham says his company Brabham Automotive is targeting a measured growth towards its planned 24 Hours of Le Mans entry in 2022.

The Australian constructor announced its intentions to race in the FIA World Endurance Championship GTE-Pro category last month with a yet-to-be-launched car with roots to its existing BT62 track-focused supercar.

The company, which was formed last year, is aiming to run the project in-house with funding from external business partners, although Brabham told Sportscar365 that he doesn’t want to dive in too quickly.

“When we announced [the Le Mans program] we said that it’s ambitious and we’ve got to earn the right to grow as a business to be able to do it,” he said.

“We only launched in May. It’s great to see people want to be up there, and we want to be up there as soon as possible, but we’re not going to rush it.

“We want to make sure the business is sustainable to be able to support it.”

Brabham explained that the BT62, which unofficially broke the Mount Panorama lap record for closed-cockpit cars during last weekend’s Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour event, has wider relevance to the brand beyond its projected Le Mans entry.

“It leads into everything,” he said.

“Brabham’s DNA is racing and we need to be on the track. We [were] back on track at Bathurst – dad [Jack] won there, I won there, Geoff won there. To see a Brabham BT62 at that circuit is pretty cool.

“Everything that we are doing and working towards the future – not just our racing aspirations of going to Le Mans in 2021-22. It’s the whole business. It [the BT62] drives the whole business forward.”

The company is currently on the lookout for commercial partnerships to help drive the program forward in preparation for the anticipated Le Mans assault.

Brabham Targeting Race Outings for BT62

Brabham Automotive is expected to give the BT62 a handful of race outings as part of the process, although Brabham would not comment on specific race plans for the car, which does not carry a GT3 homologation.

The BT62 would only be eligible to compete in special categories for non-homologated cars like the SPX class at the Nürburgring 24.

“We’re talking to corporate partners,” said Brabham. “We’ve said we want to see where we can race the BT62 for the short-term.

“We’ll just start racing again and just start building it up because we’ve not been a race team before in a sense we have in our past, but as a group, no.

“We’re starting to grow and get that expertise in to build it.”

John Dagys contributed to this report.