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Denny Hulme and Jack Brabham (1967)
A championship for Jack Brabham’s own team, but it was won by his Kiwi team-mate. The pair had raced alongside each other since 1965 but it was two years later that Denny Hulme mounted an ultimately successful challenge for the championship.
The Brabham name had already tasted success in 1966, with Jack taking his third drivers’ championship in a car bearing his own name. The following year, a reliable car resulted in a straight fight for the championship. Jim Clark was the big threat and won four races, but retired from a further five in an 11-race season, while the two Brabham drivers retired on only two occasions each.
Perhaps the pace of Clark meant the pair were watching the Lotus more than each other over the course of the season, but it was Hulme’s consistency which proved decisive. Brabham took pole position at each of the first two races while Hulme would not score a pole position all season, but the opening round - in which he finished fourth - would be the only race the New Zealander would finish outside the top three.
The last round in Mexico saw Hulme enter the race with a five-point advantage over his legendary team-mate, and he duly came home third - behind Brabham and race-winner Clark - to secure his one and only championship. As would often prove the case when team-mates fight for the title, Hulme left the team the following season and joined McLaren.
