Commentary - Motorsport Culture in Singapore

Brief history
I recently attended a lecture given by Associate Professor Seah Kah Heng who is the head of National University of Singapore’s (NUS) very own ‘F1-style’ team, the Formula Society of Automotive Engineers (FSAE). FSAE started without much fanfare in NUS back in 2001. The team members creates its own racing car each year of which their latest car, 'The Centennial V', helped the team clinched their best ever result in a race held in the United States. The team was placed 19th out of a total of 119 teams!

Assoc/P Seah laments
In his lecture, he described some points about the difficulty they faced when competing annually, and one point that struck me was the lack of motorsport culture in Singapore. So I thought did Singapore ever have a motorsport fraternity back in the olden days? Did Singaporeans have any motor-sporting culture at all?

History of Singapore’s motorsport
Looking back, Singapore did indeed have a motorsport fraternity, especially during the 1960s and 1970s. It would be surprising to know that Singapore did host a similar Grand Prix back in the 1960s. It was known then as the Singapore Grand Prix (1961 – 1973). Its route was along old Thomson Road and like the Marina Bay circuit that has names for those nerve-defying turns, there were the ‘devil’s bend’, ‘the Rothmans’s corner’ and the ‘the nee soon hairpin’[i]. Furthermore, like the present GP, the then Singapore GP attracted large crowds; there were no tall concrete-bottom fencing lining along the route preventing free-loaders from watching, just about everyone could stand at the side to catch the excitement. However, the race was over after 1973 when the government cited safety and funding issues that prevented them from organizing the race annually[ii].

The racers and spectators
The then Singapore GP not only attracted many racers, it was also a place where people came and spent the weekend soaking up the atmosphere. Like the current Singapore GP, there were also many foreign racers who came to Singapore to compete and their presence brought excitement to the race and spectators. The spectators’ support was also appreciated by the racers especially Graeme Lawrence, who scored a hat-trick when he was competing between 1969 and 1971. He remarked, “The atmosphere was absolutely electric: the enthusiasm, the people, all the rest – it was a credit to them. I fell in love with the Asian culture and to this day I still have a great admiration for what they do, the way they work…’ [iii]The thrills and frills of the then Singapore GP was also chronicled by author Eli Solomon, who wrote a book about the history of the GP in ‘Snakes & Devils’ (2008). Briefly, the book managed to trace the then Singapore GP through pictorials and extensive interviews with race drivers who took part[iv].

The demise and its continuity
The craze about motorsport among the locals died down after the last 1973 Singapore GP but it did not fade away. According to Singapore Motor Sport Association, the motorsport racing continued after 1973 but it had to seek alternative sites[v]. Those venues were located on industrial land in the western part of Singapore. Presently, many local motor-racing enthusiasts do go across the Causeway during the weekends to race in places like Sepang and Pasir Gudang.

The future
On the other hand, the government recently has re-focused its attention to the motor-sport culture. One of the reasons given was ‘… (The) government is keen to tap is the business potential of the motorsports industry’.[vi] Currently, there are three bidding consortiums who are vying to build Singapore’s first permanent track near Changi Coast Road. The project promises to bring back the motorsport culture of the yesteryears. As the president of Singapore Motor Sport Association, Mr. Tony Tan, who remarked in an article, “…This is something we can call our own. Fewer trips to Sepang and Pasir Gudang for us soon!”[vii]

So it remains to be seen whether the recent developments can bring back the motorsport culture in Singapore. However, in hindsight, we can look forward to one day having our very own NUS FSAE team designing and engineering a race car for the big names in the motorsport industry!

[i] Snakes, Devils and the Wisdom of Solomon, Sports Illustrated South Africa, http://www.sportsillustrated.co.za/features/article.php?article_id=667&related=multisport (Last viewed on 10-9-2009).
[ii] SSC Sports Museum, Singapore Sports Council, http://web.archive.org/web/20061229153633/http:/www.ssc.gov.sg/museum/ssm_cat_details.jsp?type=4&root=20&parent=20&cat=23 (Last viewed on 10-9-2009).
[iii] Snakes, Devils and the Wisdom of Solomon, Sports Illustrated South Africa, http://www.sportsillustrated.co.za/features/article.php?article_id=667&related=multisport (Last viewed on 10-9-2009).
[iv] Snakes & Devils, a history of Singapore Grand Prix, http://www.rotikok.com/index.html (Last viewed on 11-9-2009).
[v] Singapore Motor Sport Association, http://www.smsa.org.sg/ (Last viewed on 11-9-2009).
[vi] Motorsports to get permanent Changi race track, The Straits Times, 27 October 2007.
[vii] Motorsports to get permanent Changi race track, The Straits Times, 27 October 2007.