Brown began his racing career in karting in 1986, winning 22 races over five seasons from 1986 to 1990. He then moved to Europe, where his first win was in Formula Ford 1600 at Donington Park in England. In the 1992 Formula Opel-Lotus Benelux Series he secured top-ten finishes in each race; the following year he finished fourth in the series.
Brown contested North America's Toyota Atlantic Series alongside the Formula Opel-Lotus Benelux Series and the 1994 British Formula Three Championship. He made his Indy Lights debut at Laguna Seca in the 1995 season and competed in a German Formula Three Championship race in 1996.
In 1997, Brown competed at the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring in the GT2 class with Roock Racing in a factory-supported Porsche 911 GT2, finishing second in both.
Brown took a sabbatical from professional racing between 2001 and 2005 to concentrate on JMI, his motorsport marketing business. In 2006 he returned to the track with an entry in the Britcar 24 Hours race, winning his class with Moore International Motorsport. In 2007 he contested the Ferrari Challenge Series, winning on his debut at Fontana after starting from pole and leading every lap. In 2008 he secured a further Ferrari Challenge win at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal.
In 2012 Brown won the final round of the British GT Championship at Donington Park, partnering Álvaro Parente as a wild-card entry in a McLaren MP4-12C GT3. He continued competing in the British GT Championship with United Autosports in 2013. Brown still races regularly in historic events, including the Grand Prix de Monaco Historique and the Monterey Motorsports Reunion.
Brown co-founded United Autosports with Richard Dean in 2009. The team has won 6 championships and twice won both the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Drivers who have raced for the team include Fernando Alonso, Juan Pablo Montoya, Lando Norris, and Paul di Resta.
The team scored a third-place finish in the GT3 category at the Total 24 Hours of Spa in 2010 and recorded its first class victory in the 2011 British GT Championship at Snetterton. In 2012, United Autosports competed in the Blancpain Endurance Series with a McLaren MP4-12C and the British GT Championship with an Audi R8 LMS, also contesting the Dubai 12 Hour, the Bathurst 12 Hour, Macau GT Cup, and the Spa 24 Hours. The team currently competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship, European Le Mans Series, Michelin Le Mans Cup, and GT4 European Series.
United Autosports also operates a Historic Division, restoring and managing historic sportscars and F1 race cars competing at events such as the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion, the Silverstone Classic, Monaco Historics, Le Mans Classic, Spa Classic, Nürburgring Old Timers, and Goodwood Festival of Speed.
In 1995, Brown founded Just Marketing International (JMI), which grew to become the largest motorsport marketing agency in the world. JMI appeared five times in Inc. Magazine's "Inc 500" annual list. In 2013, JMI was acquired by CSM, a division of Chime Communications Limited, with Brown becoming CEO. He relinquished that position in winter 2016 to focus on McLaren.
Brown was announced as executive director of McLaren Technology Group in 2016 and became CEO of McLaren Racing in 2018 under an operational restructuring. Since joining in 2017, he has led the transformation of the brand and culture of the McLaren Formula 1 team. He was non-executive chairman of Motorsport Network between 2016 and 2019. In 2025, Brown released his first book, Seven Tenths of a Second, which became a Sunday Times bestseller.
Brown has been recognised by the Sports Business Journal "Forty Under 40" Hall of Fame, where he was listed three times. He received a TIME100 Impact Award on December 2, 2025, and was included in the Financial Times Most Influential of 2025 list.
Brown is Jewish and was raised in the San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles. As a teenager he appeared on the game show Wheel of Fortune in 1984, winning $3,050 which he used to buy his first kart. He is married, has two sons, McGuire and Maxwell, and lives in Surrey, England.
Brown has tattoos of the Autodromo Nazionale Monza and Miami International Autodrome, commemorating Daniel Ricciardo's win at the 2021 Italian Grand Prix and Lando Norris's win at the 2024 Miami Grand Prix. He is an avid collector of historical documents and sporting memorabilia, as well as road and racing cars. His collection is primarily housed at the United Autosports workshop and includes Ayrton Senna's 1991 Monaco Grand Prix-winning McLaren MP4/6, Dale Earnhardt's 1984 Chevrolet Monte Carlo NASCAR stock car, a Porsche 959 modified by Canepa, a Porsche 962 (chassis 120), a Jaguar XJR-10, and Mika Häkkinen's 2001 British Grand Prix-winning MP4/16, among others.
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