Singapore Grand Prix 1966-1973

[EliSolomon]

I'm doing some research on the Singapore GP (Old Upper Thomson Road Circuit) - the Formula Asia (or Pacific or F3) that was held from 1966-73. Very much appreciated if anyone can add to the content, correct errors and omissions or provide links or sources where I can get copies of the programs and photos of the race cars etc. Here's what I've got so far.....

1973 => March-Ford 722 - Vern Schuppan winner, 1973.
March made 20 Formula 2 spec 722 and 4 Formula Atlantic spec cars. Production year was 1972. The Schuppan car used a Ford BDA/Richardson engine for the 722, chassis number C 40.

Schuppan won the race comfortably ahead of Graeme Lawrence in a Surtees TS15, chassis C 04). Lawrence had raced the TS15 at the Surfers round of the Tasman Series earlier on 4th February (this was a fast and furious series of four rounds in New Zealand followed by Surfers in Queensland), followed by Warwick Farm on the 11th, the Sandown Park race on the 18th, and the Adelaide 100 on the 25th. The Surtees had finally arrived from England for Lawrence and had been assembled for the Surfers Paradise race with a Hart 1927cc 4-cylinder engine that put out 240 bhp at 9000 rpm. For the Singapore GP, Lawrence fitted a 1598 cc Hart BDG. The Surtees was eventually sold on to Steve Cameron before ending up in the John Wigston collection in Auckland (source: Vercoe's Historic Racing Cars of New Zealand).

Results of the 1973 Singapore GP:

Vern Schuppan - March Hart 722 - Singapore Airlines
Graeme Lawrence - Surtees TS15 Hart
John MacDonald - Brabham BT40 Hart - Cathay Pacific
Max Stewart - Rennmax England
Tony Stewart - Dolphin England
Ken Smith - March 722 Hart - Air New Zealand
J Bussell - Palliser BRM - Team Rothmans
Steve Millen - Elden Mk8 - Air New Zealand
Leo Geoghegan - Birrana 273 Hart
Camel Melinda - Elfin 600B
Fastest Lap set by Leo Geoghegan, 1:54.9 (94.71 mph, new record)

1972 => Mildren-Waggott - The Waggott was designed Sydney engine designer and builder Merv Waggott. The Waggott TC4V engine of either 1860 or 1992cc (I haven't been able to verify which) apparently bore a close resemblance to the Formula 2 Cosworth FVA which was not entirely surprising given that both were based on the Ford Cortina block, although the 2-litre versions used in the series were completely Waggott and, with Lucas fuel injection and transistorized ignition, developed 250 bhp. Max Stewart's car had a Brabham-style spaceframe car with power-weight ratios being very good. This car bore chassis 2BB (LB4). Max Stewart raced a Mildren the previous year as well - a Mildren-Alfa (chassis LB1), powered by the Alfa 1598cc engine. I believe the Mildren-Alfa was also used in the 34th Australian GP at Lakeside on 2nd February 1969 and took 6th place.

1971 => Brabham-Ford BT29/30 of Graeme Lawrence - This would have been Chassis #23 as alluded to in the previous page on the Singapore Grand Prix. Lawrence ran an 1800 cc Cosworth FVC engine for the race, winning in Singapore as well as Kuala Lumpur.

Results of the 1972 Singapore GP:
Driver Car Team/Owner Result
Graeme Lawrence - Brabham-Ford BT29/30 - Air New Zealand/Graeme Lawrence Racing 1st
John Walker - Elfin-Ford 600SA - City State Racing Team
Bob Muir - Mildren-Waggott - Robert Muir Motors
John MacDonald - Brabham-Ford - Shomac Racing Hong Kong
Cary Taylor - Brabham-Ford BT21 - Alec Mildren Racing Cars
Ken Goodwin - Rennmax-Waggott BN3 - Robert Muir Motors
Max Stewart - Mildren-Alfa Romeo - Alec Mildren Racing Cars
Ken Smith - Lotus-Ford 69 - Air New Zealand/Graeme Lawrence Racing
NB: crashed - head-on with Kino****a
Ninjo Kino****a - Honda F850 - Kino****a Japan
Albert Poon - Brabham-Ford BT21A - Albert Poon Hong Kong Racing
John Ramsey - Elfin-Ford 600SA - City State Racing Team
Hengkie Iriawan - Palliser-Ford WDB3 - Indonesia Racing
Kinoshi Misaki - Brabham-Ford - Misaki Japan

1970 => Ferrari 246T- Graeme Lawrence's 2nd straight win but this time in a Ferrari 246T with 2417cc V6 engine on chassis 246T-8. According to Vercoe in his Historic Racing Cars of New Zealand, the Lawrence 246T was originally fitted with a 2417cc four-valve V6 for the Tasman Series and was allocated to Chris Amon. By the time Lawrence acquired the car, it had had a chequered history in the hands of Amon. Lawrence won the Singapore GP under heavy pressure from Max Stewart's Mildren-Alfa.

1969 => McLaren M4a of Graeme Lawrence - This 1969 winner would have been chassis 200/14 and was raced in Air New Zealand colours for both the Singapore and the Selangor Grand Prix. Lawrence purchased chassis 14 from McLaren in 1968 and used the 1860cc Coworth FVA engine with an FT200 gearbox that came from his earlier M4A F2 car. At some point in its history, George Begg owned it and restored it to its original condition. Fellow Kiwi Roly Levis was also part of the Air New Zealand outfit but drove a Brabham BT23 1598cc Cosworth, chassis 23-7 (or 23-17?).
NB: For more information on Roly Levis's story, check out New Zealand ClassicCar, issue #172 Vol.15 No.04, article by Eoin Young. The BT23 used an 1598cc Cosworth FVA engine and the car was an ex-Frank Williams one.

NB: Third place in the 1969 event went to Tom Maw of Hong Kong in an Elfin 100 MkII (believed to be chassis C 6651) running a 1598cc Ford Twin Cam engine. This particular car was sold to Edward Tan in Malaysia and was eventually bought by Ray Hawke and taken to New Zealand.

1968 => Elfin-Ford - Garrie Cooper won the 1968 Singapore GP in an Elfin-Ford 600C. Cooper's Elfin Sports Car Company produced a number of very interesting cars - from Formula Vees to Formula 5000 "big bangers." An Elfin won the Singapore GP once and the Selangor GP twice. The Cooper Elfin-Ford was sold to Malcolm Ramsey in 1970. It was sold again in 1974 to Roger Harrison where it won the Australian Hillclimb Championship in 1983. The car was sold again in 1985 and was eventually restored in 1995 with a 2.5-litre Lotus Twin-cam engine. Gerrie passed away in 1982.

1967 => Lotus-Ford of Rodney Seow - 1967 winner Rodney Seow's Lotus-Ford was actually a Merlyn with a Lotus Twin-cam engine. Albert Poon's Lotus 23B with Twin-cam engine took second, while Arsenio "Dodgie" Laurel took third in a Lotus 41 (61 of these spaceframe cars were made, with most powered by the 997cc Cosworth SCA screamer, though those that were adapted for F2 or FB spec were to use a beefier chassis and the Cosworth FVA engine).
NB: There were a total of 36 starters for this Formula 3 race, of which 19 were single seaters, 9 were sports cars and 7 were sedans.

Eli Solomon

[roger saretzki]

hi eli
sorry i cant help with any informations about this race . can you help with infos (maybe pictures) from the 67 merlyn whith tc engine ?
regards roger

[David McKinney]

Just a couple of corrections:
Roly Levis's Brabham (1969) was not a BT23, but a BT23C (c/no BT23C-7)
And it was Tony Maw, not Tom

[Chris Townsend]

Slightly fuller results for the 1973 race, from Autosport

1 Vern Schuppan March 722-BDA Hart
2 Graeme Lawrence Surtees TS15 [04]-BDA Hart
3 John Macdonald Brabham BT40 [35]-BDA Hart
4 Max Stewart Renmax-England
5 Tony Stewart Dolphin -England
6 Ken Smith March 722 [1]-BDA Hart
7 Jan Bussell Palliser WDB4 [1]-BDA BRM
8 Steve Millen Elden Mk8-Ford Kent
9 Leo Geohegan #12 Birrana 273 [007]-Ford t/c Hart
10 Harvey Simon Elfin 600B-Ford
R Sonny Rajah March 73B [712M-7]-BDA
R John Green Chevron B20 [20.72.09]-BDA Hart
R Mike Hall Brabham BT40-BDA Hart
UNK Mal Ramsey Birrana 273 [010]-Ford t/c Hart
UNK Percy Chan Lotus 69-BDA RES
UNK Wiano GRD 272-BDA Hart
UNK Osumu Misaki Brabham BT30 [23]-Toyota
UNK Hayward Hawke-Ford Kent
UNK Boon Seng Chong Brabham BT30 [14]-BDA
DNS Albert Poon Brabham BT40-BDA Hart
DNS Brian Robertson Brabham BT40-BDA Hart
DNS Robert Silitonga GRD 272-BDA Hart

Have qualifying times somewhere too.
Percy Chan's Lotus may have been the ex-Dimsdale car from the 1972 British series.

Chris

[Dan Rear]

What a brilliant entry that is Chris, for a relatively 'obscure' race. Yet again it just shows how dull the current scene is.

Sorry, I'm feeling a bit negative/bitter today !!!!

[D-Type]

Have you tried This lot ?

[Jeff Barley]

Eli.. Do you know anything about the support races?.. I heard that there were some saloon car or GT type invites (?) , but have not seen anything to confirm either way?

Jeff

[David McKinney]

I can confirm that there were saloon races, Jeff, from right back in the '50s, IIRC. There was also a GT race at Macau, and sportscar events in Malaysia and Singapore.
Because the big east Asian races back then were all to libre regs, you had saloons and sportscars racing against the single-seaters in events such as the Singapore GP

[Jeff Barley]

Thanks for that David.. Any idea on how to check the grids?..I'm interested in any big bore American saloons that my have appeared ??

Jeff

[Frank de Jong]

Check etcc-history.it4us.nl for sketchy details on the saloon car races, "other semi international races" section.

[cavvy]

Australian Brian Foley raced Minis & Alfas in Singapore & Macau during that time - refer www.foleyalfa.com.au
An earlier version of the site had more race detail.

[Jeff Barley]

Cheers Cavvy..I'll send him a note..He may be able to point me in the right direction.. Appreciate the tip!

Frank..Is that website address correct?.. I'm doing somthing dumb.. Whats the full address?

[D-Type]

Originally Posted by Jeff Barley

~Frank..Is that website address correct?.. I'm doing somthing dumb.. Whats the full address?

It didn't work for me either so I googled for etcc-history and it came up with
http://etcc-history.it4us.nl/

Could somebody computer-literate please explain why Frank's address was wrong?

I was tempted to say the computer found the address to be double-dutch but decided I'd better not

[David McKinney]

Saloon fields in the 1960s were almost entirely British or Continental, with increasing Japanese participation as time went on. My (far from complete) records note only one "big American saloon" making any sort of impact, namely Bob Usher's 7-litre Plymouth Fury in 1966

[Frank de Jong]

Well, a cut-and-paste worked fine for me... But you've found it anyway...

[cavvy]

A link including photos to 1971.

http://www.motorracingretro.i12.com/...1singapore.htm

[JCDimsdale]

Originally Posted by Chris Townsend

Slightly fuller results for the 1973 race, from Autosport


Percy Chan's Lotus may have been the ex-Dimsdale car from the 1972 British series.

Chris

Yes, it was, and still being tended by my mechanic, Mike Jackson. The car is now with Sonny Rajah as part of his collection in Perth, Western Australia.

[cavvy]

http://warm.org.au/home.htm

Some photos of Sonnys collection in amongst the WA scene.

[Graham Clayton]

A collection of photos from the 1966 and 1967 races can be found here:

http://www.singas.co.uk/HTML/singapore_grand_prix.html