Warwick Brown (born 24 December 1949 in Sydney) is a former racing driver from Australia.
Brown participated in a single Formula One Grand Prix, on 10 October 1976. He drove a Wolf–Williams Racing car at the 1976 United States Grand Prix and finished 14th, five laps behind the winner James Hunt. Brown suffered the loss of third and fifth gears during the race, as well as rear brake problems. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
Warwick Brown (born 1949 in Sydney) raced successfully in F5000 and Can Am plus contested 1976’s United States GP in a Wolf Williams.
His family ran an earth moving business so his first experiences with four wheels was driving a tractor and a truck and he was 19 when he competed in his first event, driving a Formula 3 Brabham at Warwick Farm.
In 1971 he drove Pat Burke Racing’s McLaren M4A in an Australian Championship (also called Australian Formula 1 as it was open to F1 cars), taking two podiums and in November of that year he debuted in the Australian GP, at Warwick Farm Raceway, finishing seventh. The following year saw him compete in the Australian F1 Championship and Australian rounds of the Tasman Series, taking two podiums in a McLaren M10B and finished joint fourth in the Australian Championship.
For the following year’s Tasman Series he had a Lola T300 and with guidance from mentor and engineer Peter Molloy, he quickly adapted well to his new drive. He didn’t finish the first Tasman round at Pukekohe, due to the Lola running out of fuel, but was third at the next race at Levin and second at Wigram. Warwick then went to Australia but unfortunately his season ended due to a heavy crash at Surfers Paradise. His car ran wide then hit a dirt embankment but the light aluminium tub folded back, badly breaking his legs and mangling his feet and he was hospitalised for several months. He had a very long recovery though in the September he attended the F5000 Surfers Paradise race, and although struggling just to get about on crutches and obviously in pain, he chatted with his fellow F5000 competitors and the fans.
One month later, he then contested the Adelaide race though needed assistance to get in and out of the car. His M10B retired after 8 laps and after this he worked through the following months to get fully fit for the 1974 Tasman series. Now with a new Lola T332 Chevrolet, he had a very consistent series and never finished lower than seventh, only retiring from one round, the New Zealand GP at Wigram, and was the victor in the final race at Adelaide.
Then he, Pat and Peter Molloy took their Lola to America, into US F5000, which would be a tough contest as the field included drivers such as Mario Andretti, Brian Redman, Jackie Oliver, Sam Posey, Graham McRae, Brett Lunger, David Hobbs, Al Unser, Lella Lombardi, Vern Schuppan, James Hunt, John Cannon and others. He only contested three races and by the time he and the team got to September’s Ontario race, Mario Andretti had won two races, David Hobbs one and Brian Redman had taken a couple-all in Lola T332s. Warwick finished eleventh at Ontario, fifth at Monterey (behind B.Redman, J.Hunt, M.Andretti and E.Wietzes) and in the season’s final round at Riverside he was third (behind M.Andretti and B.Redman). The team returned to Australia later in the year and at Oran Park he was leading until encountering mechanical problems.
1975 saw him take the Tasman title with a Lola T332, in a close fought fight with fellow T332 drivers Graeme Lawrence and John Walker, and won the New Zealand GP at Pukekohe Park and a race at Oran Park.
He then returned to America where he raced very successfully (especially for Count Rudi van der Straaten’s ‘Racing Team VDS’) in F5000 and Can-Am until 1979.
During this period he made his World Championship GP debut for the Wolf Williams Team, replacing Chris Amon who had been injured in the previous race in Canada. They had become friends while C.Amon was racing in F5000 in the Tasman series and he recommended Warwick to Frank Williams as a stand in for him at Watkins Glen. Racing in 1976’s US GP he finished fourteenth though struggled against the loss of third and fifth gears plus rear brake problems during the race. He had an opportunity to race the car again in the season ending Japanese Grand Prix, but he declined the opportunity as he was committed to his F5000 responsibilities.
He won the Rothmans International Series in 1977 with a Lola T430 for VDS, winning twice during the season to take the championship ahead of Peter Gethin and Alan Jones. However, that year’s Can-Am campaign was interrupted by a broken ankle sustained at Laguna Seca.
In 1978, he dominated the series in VDS’s Lola T332, winning all four races and taking his third championship title. In CanAm, a victory at Watkins Glen, plus a run of five second places and two thirds (at Road Atlanta, St.Jovite, Road America, Mosport, Trois-Rivieres, Laguna Seca and Riverside) saw him finish second behind fellow countryman Alan Jones.
He spent a further season with VDS, driving the Lola T333 and finished third in the championship, taking a win at Oran Park in that year. Warwick wound down his racing career with a number of touring car drives, including the Hang Ten 400 (now known as Sandown) and the Bathurst 1000 at Mount Panorama. Sharing a Holden VB Commodore with Gary Cooke, they retired after 155 laps at Bathurst (just fifteen minutes before the end the race) and finished fifth at Sandown. He also won a race at Baskerville, in Tasmania (with John French) in Bryan Burt’s Ford, with Dick Johnson and Vern Schuppan in the other team car.
Warwick retired from racing in 1979 and later started a new career as a pilot, in command of business jets, plus had hotel business interests.
Gallery F1 F5000 / Tasman Cup Other
