Small things amuse small minds, mine that is.
Jack Brabham being pestered by Frank Matich before the start of the Tasman Series Sandown Park Cup on February 16, 1969. Frank is after some tips on how to extract the best sponsorship deal from Repco Ltd management.
It’s intrigued me that Jack clearly forgot to bring his nice modern Bell Magnum helmet home with him when he jumped on his Qantas 707 at Heathrow for Sydney in December 1969.
When his Brabham BT31 Repco was finally offloaded at Port Melbourne and had its nice new RBE 830 V8 fitted at Repco Brabham Engines in Maidstone, he cast around for a skid-lid and – seemingly – this circa 1960 helmet and pair of goggles were the only ones available to head off to Calder to test the car two days before the Sandown race. See here for a BT31 epic: https://primotipo.com/2015/02/26/rodways-repco-recollections-brabham-bt31-repco-jacks-69-tasman-car-episode-4/
The lovely shot above seems to be the helmet in question sitting atop Jack’s noggin on the grid of the BRDC International Trophy at Silverstone nine years before, May 14, 1960: second in his works-Cooper T53 Climax behind Innes Ireland’s Lotus 18 Climax.
Our very own Jack during the ‘69 Sandown Cup. He is on the run out of Peters above, and on the way into Dandy Road below, wearing the same 1960 helmet or one very much like it.
Small things as I say…mind you, I don’t like ‘yer chances of racing with a nine year old helmet in today’s homogenised, pasteurised over regulated times.
Brabham finished third in the race, proving brand-new BT31 was quick right out of the box, which was won – so too the Tasman Series – by Chris Amon’s Ferrari 246T. Jochen Rindt was second in his Lotus 49B Ford DFW.
Jack returned that Easter to fulfil his final Australian Repco commitments, winning the Gold Star round at Bathurst in BT31. This time (below) Jack remembered to pack the Bell Magnum but not his modern goggles…
More on Jack’s helmets here: https://primotipo.com/2020/07/11/jack-piers-and-helmets/
Credits…
Ian Smith , popperfoto.com, Rod MacKenzie, Bob Frankel
Finito…
primotipo... 
How come he is not running the engine cover as seen in current historic racing ?
Mark , I note the unattributed image of Jack Brabham at Sandown Dandy corner was taken by myself.