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1975 Penang Grand Prix Super Saloons - 46 years later


dlacey

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I think you've all seen the thread on my turbo discovery and rebuild:

I mentioned there that this actual car was raced back in the day, they ran a 'Super Saloons' race series in the 1970s. My car participated in the July '75 race at Batu Tiga near Kuala Lumpur and in September '75 at the Penang street circuit (a support race for the Penang Grand Prix) - probably others but i have only a few bits of evidence.

 

Today we re-created the photo I have from the Penang '75 race, same car & same location... the warehouse at the back of the shot is looking a bit ravaged, but this is definitely the spot. Driver in '75 was Eric Ooi, a famous driver in the region - driver today yours truly - somewhat less famous.
We tried to re-create the poise of the car, but the corner has narrowed considerably and I daren't get too crazy on the public road...

 

02Turbo_1975-2021_cropped_cred_smaller.png

This article discusses racing in that period:
https://rewind-media.com/2021/07/23/grilled-sirloin-king-prawns/
The 1975 Penang Super Saloons race was won by Harvey Yap in a Mk1 Ford Escort BDA, no idea where (if?) the 02 turbo finished.

The pictures are taken at the Weld Quay corner, lower right of this plan:

Penang-circuit-1.jpg
 

The Grand Prix event of that day in '75 is recorded here:
https://www.oldracingcars.com/seasia/results/1975/penang/  a few BMW engines in the mix
Pocholo Ramirez, who had driven my 02 turbo at the Batu Tiga event in July, was due to race in a March 732 - but the Ford Twin Cam expired before the start.

02turbo_sept2021.jpg

jpeg_000077.jpg


Early Sunday morning no traffic...

photo6213168899952849030.jpg

Thanks to Johnny Ooi for permission to use his original shot from '75, and Adrian Chua & Ben Ch'ng for helping me re-create this morning.

Edited by dlacey
  • Like 12

'59 Morris Minor, '67 Triumph TR4A, '68 Silver Shadow, '72 2002tii, '73 Jaguar E-Type,

'73 2002tii w/Alpina mods , '74 2002turbo, '85 Alfa Spider, '03 Lotus Elise

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What an awesome recreation of the original photograph, yet mysteriously haunting after 4-1/2 decades.

Had the opportunity to read up on your story of the find 4 years ago and the immense restoration efforts - utterly interesting - especially for the car going from LHD to RD and back to LHD.

I was born in Singapore (left decades ago), and remember in the mid '70s to late '80s, we'd watch the Singapore Grand Prix at the Old Thompson Road Circuit. Perhaps, having had some indication of travel to Singapore in the '70s, your car may even had raced at that circuit.

Awesome story.

 

1968 BMW 1600

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  • 2 years later...

I found another picture featuring my car racing in '75, i think its likely the same race as above:
r/malaysia - Street racing at Penang, circa. 1975 (from personal collection)

https://www.reddit.com/r/malaysia/comments/td0oh1/street_racing_at_penang_circa_1975_from_personal/

 

This picture is taken at Turn 10 in the map above, you can clearly see it's LHD in this picture. I still have no idea of the results of this race...still searching for the event program and other info locally here.

 

This was a 'super saloons' support race for the Penang Grand Prix...similar to the Macau races back in the day... the actual GP results are here:
https://www.oldracingcars.com/seasia/results/1975/penang/ 

incredible that Ralt, Chevron, Brabham, March etc cars were racing out here back then.
In the entry list you can see the name Pocholo Ramirez, he'd driven my 2002 turbo at the Batu Tiga Super Saloons earlier in the season.

 

 

Edited by dlacey
  • Like 5

'59 Morris Minor, '67 Triumph TR4A, '68 Silver Shadow, '72 2002tii, '73 Jaguar E-Type,

'73 2002tii w/Alpina mods , '74 2002turbo, '85 Alfa Spider, '03 Lotus Elise

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