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Brabham, who lives in Henley-on-Thames in the UK, was denied the chance to even race in the penultimate Petit Le Mans round when the car was forced to retire after teammate Scott Sharp suffered an incident that caused considerable damage to the Acura on lap 17.  The rare non-finish from the race-winning partnership handed the drivers’ championship to the Penske Porsche pair of Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas. 

Regardless, the Patrón Highcroft duo’s second place in the driver standings is secure, leaving Brabham and Sharp to go for a clean sweep at Laguna Seca.  With four class wins, including an outright victory and two overall pole positions, Brabham will be hoping to underline the team’s impressive 2008 LMP2 campaign with win number five. 

Unsurprisingly, with over a decade of prototype experience, 43 year-old Brabham is no stranger to success at the California circuit.  He clinched the Professional Sports Car Championship title at the track in 1998 for Panoz by passing teammate Eric Bernhard in a typical Brabham charge to the finish to claim the spoils, and also captured a GTS class victory in the Prodrive Ferrari in 2003.

Putting the disappointment of Petit Le Mans behind him, Brabham commented: “I’m really looking forward to the final race of the season, particularly as I love the Monterey Peninsula.  The aim at Laguna Seca is simple; we are going all out to win and I will be aiming to clinch pole, race victory and the fastest lap.  I like the circuit, although it can be a bit of a challenge with grip especially when your tyres go cold during full course cautions.  We were competitive there last year.  We suffered a bit at each restart, but we’ve been working on that and have fixed the problem.