Brabham's career never fully recovered, despite winning the 1991 Sebring 12 Hours and being the first Australian to start the Gold Coast Indy Grand Prix.

Despite hopes from his mother that he would avoid the motor-racing scene altogether, he grew up on a diet of Formula Ford in both Australia and the UK.

During 1984, he tried his hand at other categories, including racing sport cars in the Thundersports Series, taking his maiden victory at Snetterton, sharing a Tiga-Ford TS84 with Tim Lee-Davey.

Gary raced in 9 of the 18 rounds of the British Formula 3 Championship in a Ralt-Volkswagen RT30, managing some decent results such as second at Silverstone.

[5] He returned to Australia briefly to race in the 1987 James Hardie 1000 at Bathurst, sharing a works BMW M3 with Juan Manuel Fangio II.

Brabham showed his speed late in the race, dicing and passing the Aussie legend Peter Brock.

Although JJ Lehto won the championship, Brabham stormed home late in the season, winning four races in his Ralt-Volkswagen RT32 to finish second.

During the season, he also managed to secure some outings in the International series for both Bromley and Leyton House teams, his best result being fifth at Brands Hatch.

After more F1 testing for Leyton House and Brabham teams, he also assisted Porsche with their Indy car, before the opportunity arose to race in F1.

Brabham was the second-slowest prequalifier (leading only the Coloni-Subaru of Bertrand Gachot, who recorded a lap time of 5:15.010, but 30 seconds behind the EuroBrun of Claudio Langes) at Phoenix, and the engine gave up after only 400 m in Brazil.

[4][5] He had a small chance to join the Brabham team at the time, but confusion over his Life contract caused him to lose the seat to his brother David.

[5] In 1991, he went Stateside to the IMSA championship and drove for Nissan Performance Technology Inc. [NPTI] at the Sebring 12 Hours along his other brother Geoff and Irishman Derek Daly.