Gerry Brookes
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Gerry Brookes[edit]
Gerry Brookes (born July 19 1970) is an Australian former racing driver and currently director of Turn1 Pty Ltd and Brookes Enterprises.
Born[edit]
Gerry Oswald Brookes
19th July 1970 (age 53)
Racing Career[edit]
Starting in Kart racing at age 10 he quickly became one of australia's top kart racers, at one stage winning 85 races straight at 11 years old. In 1982 he won his first Australian championship in the Rookies 160cc class, but he then couldn't attend the next few years of the one race decider Australian championships due to his fathers business commitments.
He won the Queensland kart titles 3 years running in 1985,1986 and 1987, and then won the 1988 Australian championships as one of the youngest ever to win a senior championship, having just moved up from juniors. This race is also remembered by many as a remarkable achievement due to gerry losing his brakes on lap 6 of the championship final, and then adapting his driving style to throw the kart sideways on the entry to every braking zone in order to slow down for the turns, but then hanging to pull away from his rivals and win by over 3 seconds.
He competed in the famous Castrol International Kart Prix from 1985 to 1989, with a best result of 2nd in 1986, where he was often the fastest of the australian drivers competing against the factory teams and drivers from Europe, that came over to compete at one of australia's greatest ever kart circuits, Oran Park raceway in Sydney.
He was offered factory team drives in Italy in 1987 and 1988, but after realising that his family couldn't afford to take up these offers he retired from top level kart racing in 1989 after becoming disillusioned with the reality of drivers with more money moving up the ladder.
In 1995 he was offered a drive with CRG at the Oceania Championships at Raleigh raceway, but after being one of the fastest in unofficial practice in Intercontinental A, an entry technicality meant he could not contest the race.
In 1997 he got enough money together to start in car racing, starting in Formula Ford in the Queensland championships and then in 1998 purchasing the car he is most well known for, a 1970 Cosworth Escort Mk1 in which he proceeded to dominate the Queensland Under 2 litre Improved production class being unbeaten in every race he contested in 1998 and 1999, and usually winning outright against the open class cars. It was these performances that caught the attention of a new Formula Holden team, that offered him a paid drive for the 2000 season. This team collapsed soon after, with gerry only managing to do 2 practice days at Queensland raceway, on his second practice day he did a 1.05.7
In 2001 he drove a NASCAR at a feature event held at Queensland Raceway, qualifying 3rd in an outdated spare car of Wanless racing.
In 2001 he started Aurora Kart, a kart chassis brand designed and developed by himself, this kart proved to be extremely successful, winning the Queensland championships in 2001,2002 and 2003, the Victorian Championships in 2002 and 2003 and then placing 2nd with his protege Scott Auld at the World Rotax Max challenge in Langkawi, Malaysia in 2002
In 2008 he made a comeback to kart racing, winning the 2008 Rotax Australian Championships, the 2008 Rotax endurance championships and repeating this for both championships in 2009.
His last outing in karts was the 2014 Australian Vintage Kart Prix held at Ipswich, Queensland.
References[edit]
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