12 replies to this topic

[Marco94]

Who owns the name Brabham and the assets that formerly belonged to Brabham and later Motor Racing Development?

What is the best book/source for information about the history of Brabham.

Marco.

[Jhope]

Uncle Bernie sold his ownership in the company at the end of 1987. Brabham missed the 1988 season as they were re-grouping the team in preperation for the 1989 season. The car that was built for that year was your typical generic model for that year. There was nothing special about it in fact. The few seasons that followed, saw the team delegated to the rear end of the field. The only bright side of those remaining years, was Damon Hill's introduction to Formula One, as well as a noted inclusion of Desire Wilson as the first female formula one driver since ???? ????? the 1981 British GP.

Can anyone out there remind me of who Bernie sold the team too? I forgot, and I really wanna know. Dennis, is this info on your site by the way?

[BRG]

I don't know who actually owns the remains of Brabham but someone tried to start a F3 team in late 1999 called Motor Racing Developments, but were stopped. I never saw the whys and wherefores of it, but presumably they thought they owned the name?

I believe Black Jack said recently that he wished he had never lost control of the name.

Yet another reason for disliking Bernie...if you needed one!

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BRG

"all the time, maximum attack"

[MattSmith]

Wasn`t it something like Middlebridge?

[Dennis David]

I think Sir Jack regretted ever selling the team.

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Regards,

Dennis David
Grand Prix History

Life is racing, the rest is waiting

[Ray Bell]

I think John Arthur regrets having retired... but maybe the partnership with Ron was wearing thin?

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Life and love are mixed with pain...

[Vicster]

I think the team was bought from Bernie by some Japanese interest. It was during the late '80s when tons of Yen were being dumped into F1. When the Japanese economy slumped so did the involvement.

[Andrew Fellowes]

Bumpty, Bump, Bump.

Fell over this by accident and I see it remains unresolved.

In 1988 Brabham was sold to Joachim Luthi but when he was jailed for tax evasion it passed to the Middlebridge Group. They also owned Onyx where we find that other "interesting" individual Jean-Pierre van Rossem owner of Moneytron. Landhust Leasing helped finance Middlebridge with some "very interesting deals". Into all this you can weave the story of Old Number One as well.

Oh boy do I do a quick runner now? Nah, in for a penny in for a pound, so lets continue;

August 1992 Landhurst was put into receivership as a result of the investigating accountants' report. MGL collapsed shortly afterwards due to fraudulent leases which had been issued in exchange for cash payments to Landhurst directors. The SFO started its investigation with the City of London Police in September 1992. On 20 October 1997, the two directors Ball and Ashworth were sentenced to three years and 18 months imprisonment respectively.

It would seem that the assets of Middlebridge were auctioned. Anyone know where & when this took place?

[hueb_s]

Originally posted by Andrew Fellowes
Landhust Leasing helped finance Middlebridge with some "very interesting deals"....

Wasn't Landhurst also involved in some deals to "salvage" Team Lotus at the beginning of the '90s? Or am I missing something here? Didn't TL have big hills of money to pay back once Landhurst stranded?

[fines]

Originally posted by BRG
I don't know who actually owns the remains of Brabham but someone tried to start a F3 team in late 1999 called Motor Racing Developments, but were stopped. I never saw the whys and wherefores of it, but presumably they thought they owned the name?

I think the F3 team wanted the name "Jack Brabham Racing", which was the name of Black Jack's team for Gary and David, which later became Bowman Racing. It was vetoed by Jack himself, apparently because he did not want a team with his name on it and no involvement by himself - although his involvement in the earlier Brabham F3 team was minimal to say the least! I can't recall the team, though, may even have been Trevor Carlin or somesuch...

About Middlebridge: I was never sure how much of that was Japanese and how much British. Someone with the lowdown?

[MCS]

Found this as a case study from the Serious Fraud Office...

(I was curious because I thought I recognised the name "Ashworth" from my time at Atlantic Computers - I was mistaken);

"Ball and Ashworth took full, dishonest advantage of their controlling positions at Landhurst for personal gain (it was) plain simple old-fashioned greed," said prosecutor Timothy Langdale QC in his opening speech.

At the end of the third day of his trial, on 15 September 1997, at the Central Criminal Court, David Ashworth, 45, a certified accountant and the former joint managing director of Landhurst Leasing, changed his not guilty plea to guilty of two counts of corruption. Edward Ball, 50, former chairman and joint managing director of Landhurst Leasing, had earlier pleaded guilty to eight counts of corruption.

The core business of Landhurst Leasing plc, founded by Edward Ball in 1984, was to provide leasing facilities on classic cars such as Aston Martins and Ferraris. As the company grew, Ball increasingly diversified into other areas such as company car fleets, plant and office equipment. From 1988 Landhurst supplied lease finance to engineering firm Middlebridge Group Ltd (MGL).

MGL had difficulty with the lease repayments. Ball and Ashworth did not tell their bankers about this. Instead they hid the problem. When MGL leases expired they arranged new leases on other MGL assets.

The money from the new leases was used to pay off the old leases.

This cycle of concealment and spiralling debt became much worse when MGL bought the renowned Formula One Brabham motor racing team in March 1990. Landhurst loaned MGL £1 million for the purchase, breaching a covenant with their bankers in the process. Critically for Brabham, little sponsorship was secured. Without it Brabham became a huge drain on MGL and consequently on Landhurst's bankers.

Their dependency on Landhurst Leasing made the directors of MGL vulnerable to improper pressure from the two defendants. At the time of the £1 million loan Ball requested and was paid £25,000 in cash by MGL - the first of several corrupt payments. The total paid to the two defendants came to £420,000.

MGL began to run out of assets on which leases could be written even though, according to Timothy Langdale QC, "Ted Ball would have written a lease on the tyres changed after a pit-stop." Ashworth had no choice but to alert Landhurst's bankers. Investigating accountants were called in and found that of the £121 million lent by Landhurst, only £70 million was recoverable. That meant a shortfall of £50 million.

Of the £7.2 million which MGL owed to Landhurst on paper, only £1 million could be retrieved.

In August 1992 Landhurst was put into receivership as a result of the investigating accountants' report. MGL collapsed shortly afterwards and with it Brabham, one of the most famous names in motor racing history. The SFO started its investigation with the City of London Police in September 1992.

On 20 October 1997, Ball was sentenced to three years' imprisonment and Ashworth to 18 months. They were disqualified from acting as company directors for eight and six years respectively.

[MCS]

I'm on a roll - don't worry, it won't last!

Middlebridge were also involved with Reliant

see http://www.scimitarw...om/clubhistory/

Mark

[T54]

While a guest of Sir Jack in 1996 in Australia, Jack told me that his business interests had been able to re-acquire the rights to the name "Brabham".
But I do not know any more details or forgot them.

T54