Penang Grand Prix

Penang, 2 May 1976

All cars are 1.6-litre 1.6 4v unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. March 76B [17] (Graeme Lawrence): New to Sonny Rajah with a fuel-injected Hart engine, and run for Graeme Lawrence in South East Asia.
2. Chevron B29 [29-75-05] (Albert Poon): New to Albert Poon (Hong Kong), and raced in Southeast Asian events in 1975. Raced in Southeast Asian 1600cc 4-valve formula events in 1976, and driven by Kevin Bartlett at the Macau Grand Prix in November 1976. Sold less engine to Chong Boon Seng (Singapore) in December 1976 and raced by him in 1977, 1978 and 1979, It was then retained by him until it was sold to Leif Norberg, a Swede then living in Malaysia, in 1985. Then to Tony Armstrong (Australia) in 1989. To Geoff Weiland (Australia) in 1998, then to Peter Addison (Sydney, NSW), then to John Gale (Sydney, NSW) in 2005. In March 2020, the car was bought from Gale by Peter Brennan (Melbourne, Victoria).
3. Chevron B20 [72-9] (Ian Grey): New to John S Green in Formula B specification but there is no evidence of this car being delivered before the end of 1972. Green ran it in the Gap Hill Climb in January 1973, but only circuit raced it once, in the Singapore Grand Prix in April 1973. Green died in early 1974, and the Chevron was sold to David Schollum for Steve Millen in South-East Asian races that year. Then shipped to New Zealand and fitted with a 1980cc Cosworth FVC engine for the 1975 Tasman series. Used by Millen in 1600cc form at Batu Tiga and Macau later in 1975. Sold to Ian Grey in 1976 and raced with a Cosworth BDM at Macau in 1976 and 1977. Later sold to Dick Ward (Perth, Australia) and George Stacey about the end of 1979, and then to Harry Hickling (ACT, Australia). Sold to David Innes late 2014.
4. Lola T460 [HU8] (Grant Swartz): New to American Grant Swartz for racing in Southeast Asia. Retained for 1977. Unknown after the 1977 Macau GP.
5. March 732 [73B?] (Brian Tyler): Brian Tyler, described as a Singapore-based Englishman, raced a March "732" in the Selangor Grand Prix at Batu Tiga in August 1976. Eli Solomon found two pictures of the car for his excellent 'Rides of March - Part 2' article which show that it looked a lot like the Team Rothmans March 73B, the ex-Sonny Rajah car. Tyler raced the car again in two races in 1977, the Malaysian Grand Prix in April and the Penang GP in May. It ran in the 1600cc 2-valve class at Penang, so presumably had a Ford twin cam engine at all three races. It was advertised by Tyler from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in September 1977 as a March 732 fitted with a "brand new Holbay 1600cc twin cam" and FG400 gearbox. The engine makes it much more likely that it was a 73B, not a 732. One possibility is that it was the March 722/73B that Dieter Quester had taken out to the Macau Grand Prix in November 1973. Nothing more known.
6. Brabham BT40 (Diana Poon): New to Albert Poon (Hong Kong) and fitted with a Hart twin cam engine for the Southeast Asian 2-valve 1600cc formula. Raced by Poon in 1973 and 1974 and then, after Poon acquired a newer Chevron B29, the Brabham was raced by Graeme Lawrence in the Malaysian GP in March 1975 and by Kevin Bartlett in the Macau Grand Prix in November 1975. Then raced by Poon's wife, Diana Poon, from 1976 to 1979. At some point, the Brabham was badly damaged, and its tub has been rebuilt by new owner Neville McKay. Reported to be still owned by McKay but in pieces in 2004.
7. Brabham BT30 [14] (Chong Boon Seng): Sold new to Ecurie Ecosse and run for Graham Birrell in F2 in 1970. Also raced once by Peter Gethin and by Richard Attwood later in the season. To Peter Westbury early 1971 and raced in several F2 races (also raced once by Dieter Quester) until the team's BT36 was delivered. Sold to Dunnett's Garage, converted to F/Atlantic specification and entered for Ronnie Mackay in libre and F/Atlantic in 1971 and 1972, run by MRE. To Chong Boon Seng for south east Asian racing in 1973 and used by him until 1976. Then to Del Schloemer and raced by him and by Cherie Schloemer in 1977 and 1978. To Wybe Valkema around 1980 and retained to 1982. Then to Australia and with Brian Wilson by 1988. Wilson sold it to Art Valdez (Torrance, CA) and from Valdez it returned to Australia when he sold it to Bob Ilich (Perth, WA) in 2010.
8. Ralt RT1/75 [5] (John Macdonald): New to John Macdonald (Hong Kong) and raced in Southeast Asian 1600cc 2-valve category racing in 1975, when he won the Penang and Selangor Grands Prix, then as a Formula Atlantic to win the Macau GP in November. Retained for 1976 when he ran it in the 1600cc 4-valve category and won the Selangor and Indonesia Grands Prix. He ran it again in 1977, and it was also raced by Vern Schuppan at Macau that year. Macdonald then sold the Ralt to Peter Marshall, who raced it in Formula Pacific in 1978 and 1979. It was still in Marshall's ownership when raced by Sonny Rajah in 1980 and 1981. The car was then stored at Rajah's father's house in Kuala Lumpur until 1990, when Marshall retrieved the car and had it shipped to Sydney, Australia. The following year it was taken to Ralt importer Graham Watson to be rebuilt to original specification. It was sold in early 1999 to Peter Mohr (Sydney, Australia) who took it with him to the US when he moved there, and raced it in US historic racing in 2000 and 2001. It was then sold to Dennis D'Angelo and remained with him until 2006. It was then bought by Don Sandy and Art Hebert and raced on the west coast in 2006. In 2012, it was acquired by Harindra de Silva and raced by Timothy de Silva (Rancho Palos Verdes, CA) in west coast historic events. Sold in 2021 to Éric Verdin (Mill Valley, CA), who has continued to race it in historic events.

Sources

Note that the identification of individual cars in these results is based on the material presented elsewhere in this site and may in some cases contradict the organisers' published results.

All comments, clarifications, corrections and additions are most welcome. Please email Allen (allen@oldracingcars.com) if you can help in any way with our research.

Individual sources for this event

Entry list and other programme details provided by Richard Coe, which included hand-written results. Laps completed and race times for the first four finishers provided by Angus Lamont.