Macau Grand Prix

Macau, 4 Dec 1972

All cars are 1.6-litre 1.6 2v unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. Brabham BT36 [2] (John Macdonald): New to Rondel Racing for Graham Hill and Bob Wollek to race in F2 in 1971. To John Macdonald (Hong Kong) for 1972, and fitted with a Hart 416 twin cam on carbs for Southeast Asian racing. To Eddie Marcello (Philippines) in 1973, and then to Rod Ocampo (Philippines) 1975, who last raced it in 1976. It then went to Romeo David in 1977, but the engine failed during practice and it did not race again. Later given to Louis Camus. Acquired from Camus by Leif Norberg, a Swede then living in Malaysia, in 1988, and it was restored for him in 1996 by Peter Denty Racing (Thetford, Norfolk). Sold to Andrew Fellowes (Benowa, Queensland, Australia) in 2004. To Alan Telfer in 2011.
2. Brabham BT30 [5] (Albert Poon): Sold to Frank Williams Racing Cars and entered for Piers Courage and Richard Attwood in F2 in 1969. Then sold to Albert Poon (Hong Kong) and raced by him at the Macau GP in November 1969. Retained by Poon for South East Asian racing in 1970, 1971 and 1972. Reported to have been scrapped.
3. Palliser WDB4 [1] (Jan Bussell): New for Vern Schuppan to drive as the Palliser Racing entry in the British Formula Atlantic series in early 1971. Taken out to Singapore in April 1971 and sold there to Hengkie Iriawan, who raced it in Southeast Asian events in 1971 and early 1972, still fitted with its BRM Ford twin cam engine. Iriawan died on 23 April 1972 in a go-kart crash at Ipoh in Malaysia, and the Palliser was sold to Jan Bussell (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), who raced it in 1972, 1973 and 1974. Subsequent history unknown.
4. Porsche 906 [007] (Theodore Yip): One of two or three Porsche 906s to bear the number 007, this car may have originated with Alan Hamilton in Australia before going to Richard Wong in Singapore and then Teddy Yip in Macau. Yip drove the car in the libre Macau GP in 1972.
5. March 722 [40] (Vern Schuppan): New to Australian Vern Schuppan to drive in the British Formula Atlantic championship. Fitted with a BRM Ford twin cam engine, and first seen in practice at Mallory Park in late March, but Schuppan left before the race to catch a flight to the Singapore GP. Schuppan finished second in Singapore, and third in the Malaysian GP a week later. Then returned to the British series, now with a BDA, and won four rounds. The car was then fitted with Falconer bodywork and an Amon-Woods engine rebuilt by Geoff Richardson, and raced in the Rothmans 50,000 and in two late-season F2 races. After a single F2 race in 1973 fitted with a Richardon BDG, the car went to Southeast Asia, winning the Singapore GP with a Ford twin cam fitted, then competed in the JAF Grand Prix at Fuji with the BDG, and back to the 'twink' for Macau. He raced the car in British Formula Atlantic briefly in early 1974, then sent it back to Asia where he won the Macau GP in November, by which time it had been fitted with 732 bodywork and a Lola T360 rear wing. It then became a fixture at Macau up to 1977, being driven by Alan Jones and Derek Daly. Patrick Tambay also raced for Theodore Racing in the Malaysian and Penang Grands Prix in 1977, where it was still in 732 form but was billed as a 752. It reappeared at Macau for Schuppan in 1979, now in 76B bodywork. After one more race in the hands of Roberto Moreno, the car was retained by Yip and placed in the Macau Grand Prix Museum.

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

John McDonald's Brabham BT36 was ex-Rondel/Hill, Sonny Rajah's March was ex-Peterson, Jan Bussell's Palliser was ex-Schuppan/Henky Iriawan and Schuppan's car was the one used all season and in F2.