The 1973 Singapore Grand Prix was a motor race held at the Thomson Road Grand Prix circuit on 22 April 1973. It was the final Singapore Grand Prix before the cancellation of the event, which resumed in 2008 as a round of the Formula One World Championship. The race was contested over 50 laps and was won by Vern Schuppan driving a March. The race was run to Australian Formula Two rules.
Report Background John MacDonald had a brand new Brabham BT40 delivered to him for the race. However, his team ran into difficulty due to fuel pick-up problems with the new car.
In the 1972 event, the 28-year-old Singaporean driver Lionel Chan was involved in an accident which saw his car roll into a ditch on the fourth lap after losing a wheel and hitting an official car. He was taken to hospital but fell into a coma and later died. The circuit was considered dangerous and the Singaporean Minister of Social Affairs, Encik Othman Wok, stated, "I'll be the happiest man when we get a permanent circuit."
Race Schuppan was leading Malcolm Ramsay's Birrana when Schuppan's March kicked up some stones, puncturing Ramsay's fuel tank and covering him in petrol.
Aftermath
During a support race for touring cars, Swiss driver Joe Huber went off the track into a lamp post. He died six days later as a result of his injuries. He was the seventh fatality in the history of the Singapore Grand Prix. The difficulty of implementing adequate safety measures, along with concerns that the Grand Prix was promoting reckless driving, led to motor racing being banned in Singapore after the 1973 Grand Prix. Other contributory factors have been suggested, including an increase in traffic, the inconvenience of having to close roads for the event and also a surge of oil prices stemming from the Suez Crisis. On average the Grand Prix saw one fatality per year, partly due to the nature of the circuit which featured monsoon drains and bus stops. Graeme Lawrence, a three-time winner of the Singapore Grand Prix, believed that the Thomson Road circuit was one of the most dangerous in the world.
A permanent track incorporating a sports complex was proposed as a replacement for the Thomson Road circuit, but this did not come to fruition.
Classification Starting grid PosNameChassisEngineTime1 Graeme LawrenceSurtees TS15Hart1:57.12 Vern SchuppanMarch 722Hart1:57.33 Leo GeogheganBirrana 273Hart1:57.84 Ken SmithMarch 722Hart1:59.15 John MacDonaldBrabham BT40Hart1:59.16 Malcolm RamsayBirrana 273Hart1:59.57 Max StewartRennmax BN3England2:01.38 Tony StewartDolphin 732England2:01.59 Sonny RajahMarch 722Hart2:02.610 Albert PoonBrabham BT40Hart2:03.011 Mike HallBrabham BT40Hart2:04.012 Percy ChanLotus 69RES2:07.513 Jan BussellPalliser WDB4BRM2:07.614 Hanny WianoGRD 272Hart2:08.915 Kiyoshi MisakiBrabham BT30Toyota2:11.116 Steve MillenElden Mk. 8Ford2:12.717 Harvey SimonElfin 600BFord2:13.618 John GreenChevron B20Hart2:14.419 Dave HaywardHawkeFord2:31.820 Chong Boon SengBrabham BT302:49.1
Race Pos Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid 1 Vern Schuppan March-Hart 50 1:38:58.3 2 2 Graeme Lawrence Surtees-Hart 50 +38.5 1 3 John MacDonald Brabham-Hart 49 +1 lap 5 4 Max Stewart Rennmax-England 49 +1 lap 7 5 Tony Stewart Dolphin-England 49 +1 lap 8 6 Ken Smith March-Hart 47 +3 laps 4 7 Jan Bussell Palliser-BRM 47 +3 laps 13 8 Steve Millen Elden-Ford 43 +7 laps 16 9 Leo Geoghegan Birrana-Hart 41 +9 laps 3 10 Harvey Simon Elfin-Ford 40 +10 laps 17 ? Percy Chan Lotus-RES 12 ? Hanny Wiano GRD-Hart 14 ? Kiyoshi Misaki Brabham-Toyota 15 ? John Green Chevron-Hart 18 ? Dave Hayward Hawke-Ford 19 ? Chong Boon Seng Brabham 20 Ret Sonny Rajah March-Hart 25 Battery 9 Ret Malcolm RamsayBirrana-Hart 17 Fuel tank 6 Ret Mike Hall Brabham-Hart 7 Radiator 11DNS Albert Poon Brabham-Hart Engine 10DNS Brian Robertson Brabham-Hart Practice crash —DNS Robert Silitonga GRD-Hart Practice crash —
References