GOLD COAST, Australia -- It's one of the most enduring moments in auto racing history and the memories from that race 50 years ago are still vivid for Jack Brabham.
And well they should be for the 83-year-old Australian, a three-time Formula One champion now slowed by a kidney ailment.
It was Dec. 12, 1959, and he was driving the final lap of the inaugural U.S. Grand Prix in Sebring, Fla., when disaster struck.
"I was leading the race right up to the last 500 yards and the car ran out of petrol," Brabham says in an interview with The Associated Press at his Gold Coast home.
"I coasted to about 50 yards away and I pushed the car over the line. If I would have received any assistance I would have been disqualified. I managed to finish fourth, which was enough to win the championship."
That championship was his first Formula One drivers' title. He won it again in 1960. In 1966, he won his third title, this time in a car he manufactured from a design created by his own team, including business partner and fellow engineer Ron Tauranac.
It's a feat that hasn't been duplicated to this day.
The man affectionately known as Sir Jack -- he was accorded a knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II in 1979 -- isn't moving as fast these days. But he's still quick enough to offer his assessments of the current state of Formula One: thumbs up for F1 head Bernie Ecclestone, thumbs down for FIA president Max Mosley, head of the sport's governing body.
The kidney illness, which requires dialysis three times a week, has "really clipped my wings" -- he says, but Brabham and his second wife, Margaret, still live a busy life in a home overlooking the eighth hole of a resort golf course and sprinkled with mementos of his feats, including a glass-encased model replica of the Cooper Climax that he pushed over that Sebring finish line. It takes a place of pride among photos of him with prime ministers, sports personalities and fellow competitors.
One of those racing rivals, British great Stirling Moss, provided the forward to a book about his friend and competitor. Moss didn't hold back.
"On track he was always the toughest of tough competitors, tough sometimes to the point at which I'd wonder, 'How could such a nice bloke out of a car grow such horns and a tail inside one!" Moss wrote.
"If you ever raced against Jack you'd really know you'd been in a race ... (he) played the game as if your life depends on it, no quarter asked, and absolutely none given. To his natural driving ability he added a deeper technical understanding. ..."
"That was a reasonable comment," Brabham says when he reads the excerpt, laughing. And then he returns the favor -- "I learned a lot from Stirling. He was a pretty tough nut to race against."
Brabham's legacy in auto racing will be enduring. Brabham and his design team constructed the BT19, which he drove to victory in 1966. The following year, the Brabham team won its second consecutive world F1 title when New Zealander Denny Hulme drove the BT20 to victory.
The seeds of that success came seven years earlier with Brabham's revolutionary rear-engine design.
"When we won the world championship again, it really proved where the engine had to be," Brabham says. "People like Lotus and Ferrari, they all went rear-engined after that."
Brabham won his final Grand Prix in South Africa in 1970 before retiring from F1 at the age of 44, having won 14 career grand prix races.
He continued to compete at different venues after his F1 retirement and his three sons, Geoff, Gary and David, whom Brabham had with his first wife, Betty, also had professional racing careers. In March of this year, David Brabham helped celebrate a re-enactment at Sebring of his dad's push across the line that clinched his first title.
Brabham says his sons' involvement in the sport helped cushion the blow when he left the track for good.
"No doubt that when the boys started racing, that helped," Brabham says. "That sort of got me back into it. ... it was like old times, and did a lot for me."
Geoff Brabham has won the Sebring 12-hour race twice.
"I've got a bit of a soft spot for Sebring because of what my dad did there," says Geoff Brabham, who often pops in to visit his father from his nearby home. "Obviously the kidney problem has slowed his movements, but he's in a routine and that seems to be working for him."
The routine includes watching just about every Grand Prix race on television, and appearing at local and international racing events to sign autographed photos "till his hand cramps," says Margaret. He also visits a gym a few times a week for a workout, and offers, when asked, his opinion on the current state of Formula One racing.
He believes the Concorde Agreement, which was signed in August and could give Formula One some stability after a threatened split by the eight leading teams to form a breakaway series, will help settle the sport down.
Mosley, the FIA president, is not expected to stay on when his term expires in October.
Asked if Mosley has been good for the sport, Brabham replies: "No, I don't think he has. He has been too dictatorial and made too many changes to regulations."
Formula One head Ecclestone, who bought the Brabham race team in 1972 and ran it until 1987, came in for a better assessment.
"Bernie is a real businessman, he's got a lot of go in him," Brabham says. "He is still in there running everything, and he's done a fantastic job."
Brabham saved some of his criticism -- perhaps disguised more as hurt and genuine disappointment -- for Australian Grand Prix officials.
While Sebring held that 1959 reenactment this year, and a small Victoria state motoring group hosted a luncheon for him to mark the 50th anniversary of his first F1 championship, there was no ceremony or even an acknowledgment of Brabham's accomplishment at the season-opening F1 race in Melbourne this year.
"I was a bit disappointed that the Australian GP didn't do anything," Brabham says.
His wife was more direct.
"He put Australia on the motor-racing map," Margaret Brabham says. "People didn't know about Australia, they only knew about (cricket legend) Don Bradman, nothing else. It is rather hurtful that he is not always appreciated. I think someone could have done something about his 50th anniversary."
Margaret Brabham says she's told her husband to make sure he "hangs around" for seven more years until 2016, when she'll write to political leaders to ensure that the 50th anniversary of his third Formula One drivers' championship will be marked in a better way.
Brabham expects he'll be there.
"My aim is now to go out without an enemy in the world," Brabham says, echoing a phrase he's recited many times before, most often in jest. "I'm going to outlive the bastards."