The 2009 Le Mans 24 Hours winner will share a Brabham BT62 Competition, run by Kendall Developments, with Paul Bailey in the UK national racing category.
The 58-year-old will be attempting to help Bailey retain the GT Cup GTO class title he won last year during a campaign predominantly at the wheel of a Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO.
Brabham’s previous full-season programme came in the inaugural year of the reborn World Endurance Championship with the JRM Acura LMP1 squad.
His race outings since have included a couple of events in the BT62 and BT63, as well as appearances in the historic ranks.
The decision to make an active competition return follows the announcement of the end of the collaboration between his family and Fusion Capital to manufacture the BT62 and its GT2 racing derivative, the BT63, in Australia under the Brabham Automotive banner.
“That has given me the freedom to do this, to do more racing, which is an important part of the Brabham story and something we should have been doing more of before,” Brabham told Autosport.
“Unfortunately, our partners didn’t really want to do motorsport.”
Brabham explained that the opportunity came up when he went to see Bailey to tell him about the upcoming announcement about the end of Brabham Automotive.
“I wanted to make all the customers aware of what was going on and told Paul that I’d love to race with him one day in the Brabham,” he said.
“He asked, ‘How about this year?’ It took about five minutes, we shook hands, and off we go.”
Brabham explained that Bailey wants to “put a full season under the belt” of his BT62 for the first time.
He had to abandon the car last year after encountering engine problems during the second weekend of the MotorSport Vision Racing-run GT Cup at Brands Hatch.
Bailey swapped briefly to a Mercedes-AMG GT3 during that event and subsequently moved on to the Lamborghini, which he drove with Ross Wylie and, for one weekend, James Dorlin.
Brabham stressed that he wants to keep racing beyond 2024 and that he expects to be downgraded from silver to bronze under the FIA system of driver categorisation when he hits 60. “Then I want to be the best bronze out there,” he said.
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