Some posters hang on a wall. A few carry a whole career in one frame. The personally signed Jack Brabham commemorative poster that Square Wheels Lodge No. 9966 will auction at Installation is one of those.
Sir Jack Brabham — three times Formula One World Champion, in 1959, 1960 and 1966 — stares out of the artwork the way the paddock remembered him. Black Jack. The stare never lifted. Mechanic’s hands. Around him sit the machines that made the myth: the Ford Mustang of the 1965 British Saloon Car Championship; the Cooper-Climax cars of the back-to-back world titles; the Repco-Brabham BT19 of 1966; a green single-seater with a Honda badge for atmosphere from the F2 years. The collage is a short history of a man who could race a touring car as readily as a grand prix car.
The origin story still stops traffic. Sebring, 1959: Cooper-Climax, last-lap fuel, and a world champion shoving his own car across the line. Still the title. First Australian Formula One champion. He had already helped make the front-engined Ferraris look old with the rear-engined Coopers and Coventry Climax power — back-to-back in 1959 and 1960. Then, with Ron Tauranac and Motor Racing Developments, he built the cars that carried his own name.
1966 is the chapter no other driver owns. Written off at forty, Brabham took the drivers’ championship in the BT19-Repco V8: Australian driver, Australian engine, car with his name on the nose. He remains the only man to win the Formula One drivers’ championship in a car of his own construction. Denny Hulme took 1967 in the other Brabham. The big Honda partnership that year was Formula Two; the F1 crown was Repco. Knighted in 1979, he raced on until a final grand prix win at Kyalami in 1970, aged forty-three, and retired at the end of that season. He died in 2014. Sons Geoff, Gary and David carried the name.
“Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting.”
Line as printed on the commemorative poster
That line appears on the poster itself. We present it as the artwork carries it — a racing motto on a signed commemorative piece, not a claim about who first coined the words.
The lot is straightforward and rare: a superb commemorative poster, personally signed by Sir Jack Brabham. It goes under the hammer at our Installation Meeting on Saturday 26 September 2026. Brother Peter Manning has circulated the flyer around the lodge. Please bid generously.
Every penny raised supports Mamba Tamba Nursery School and community projects in Illiassa, The Gambia, with WithGambia Team 2026. The students pay their own travel; the money goes to education, feeding programmes and community initiatives on the ground. Motor cars, friendship, charity — the lodge’s three words, in that order, on the night.
Square Wheels Lodge No. 9966. Installation, Saturday 26 September 2026. A unique piece of motor racing history, signed by Black Jack — and a chance to put it to work for Illiassa.
“Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting.” is a line by Steve MQueen surely
Hi Alan — you’re right. That’s Steve McQueen, Le Mans (1971). The poster prints it as a motto, not a citation, so we left it as artwork copy rather than hang it on Jack. Thanks for putting the name on it.