Patron Highcroft Racing team members congratulate driver David Brabham on his 100th start in the ALMS this weekend at Mosport. Photo courtesy Patron Highcroft Racing

One of the versatile men of the American Le Mans Series reaches a unique milestone at Mosport International Raceway – Patrón Highcroft Racing’s David Brabham will start his 100th series race.

Brabham drove the #1 Panoz GTR-1 in the first ever American Le Mans Series race at Sebring in 1999 and 11 years later, the Australian has the #1 on his car again aboard the HPD ARX-01c (pictured above right).

Brabham becomes only the second driver to top the 100 races mark – joining his former Panoz teammate and Mosport 1999 winner Johnny O’Connell in three figures.

That “100” club is expected to grow in membership over the next two years with 11 drivers within 20 races of the magic mark. Olivier Beretta is expected to be next – he is only seven races away from joining the club at 93.

The unique aspect of Brabham’s ALMS career is the fact he is the only man to have won and scored pole position in the LMP1, LMP2, GT1 and GT2 classes.

Amazingly, Brabham has actually won approximately every fourth race he has entered – prior to the Road America/Mosport back-to-back races – he has 23 wins from 98 race starts.

The logo for David Brabham's 100th start in the American Le Mans Series. Photo courtesy Patron Highcroft Racing

In addition, Brabham has 57 podium finishes, 74 top fives, 95 top tens, 13 pole positions and seven fastest laps. When Brabham made his ALMS debut, his current teammate Simon Pagenaud was a 14-year-old Frenchman dreaming of graduating from karts. In fact, Brabham actually made his karting debut before Pagenaud was born.

Brabham is eagerly awaiting the chance to celebrate his 100th race at Mosport. The venue has been extremely kind to the Brabham family in the past. Not only has David taken LMP2 and overall victories in the past two years, his father Sir Jack Brabham won the Canadian Formula 1 Grand Prix at Mosport in 1967.

“I’ve seen this series grow and develop over those 11 years and I have been very fortunate to have been a part of it for 100 of the races,” Brabham said.

“It is a fantastic championship with a lot of great people involved and I have loved taking part in it.

“At Sebring back in 1999 the series was really breaking new ground withaligning sportscar racing in the US to the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

“I had a great start to the series and I have had a great time driving in all the different classes with all the different teams. I didn’t think at the time back in 1999 that it would have taken that long to actually win the championship last year with Highcroft. Hopefully we can do it again in 2010.”

ALMS DRIVER STARTS

109 Johnny O’Connell
99 David Brabham
93 Olivier Beretta
91 Jon Field
91 Butch Leitzinger
86 Jan Magnussen
86 Joerg Bergmeister
85 Bill Auberlen
84 Johannes van Overbeek
84 Sascha Maassen
81 Chris Dyson
81 Clint Field
81 Oliver Gavin

This story appears in the Mosport issue of The Alley, Michelin’s trackside publication. It can be downloaded from The Alley: In Print section of michelinracingusa.com as a PDF or picked up at the track.