Sydney is gearing up to rekindle memories of six decades of action packed motor racing . . . in Macau.From May 23-26, the Macau Government Tourist Office (Australia) is to host a free exhibition Macau Grand Prix: 60 years of Motorsport History - for the public, focusing on the upcoming Diamond Jubilee of the globally famous event.
The Lower Exhibitions Hall at Sydney Town Hall, the venue for this 60th Anniversary expo, will be decorated with a series of historic photographs, video coverage of Macau Grand Prix meetings, fascinating posters from yesteryear and other forms of motor racing memorabilia.
To add a splash of colour to the event, three Australian-based racing cars of different vintages will take pride of place within the exhibition, open each day from 10am until 4pm.
Visitors will also have the chance to win a coffee table book on the history of Formula Three racing at the Macau Grand Prix, signed by two Australian motor racing legends Kevin Bartlett and Vern Schuppan who both won past Macau Grand Prix.
Macau tourism information, including maps and guidebooks and details on the various attractions will be handed out during the four days.
In Sydney to launch the 60th Anniversary Macau Grand exhibition at an invitation-only presentation on the evening of Wednesday, May 22, will be Bartlett and Schuppan.
"My recollections of Macau in the sixties are among my most treasured and favourite parts of my racing career," said Bartlett. "Up until that time my travel had been confined to the Southern Hemisphere and to arrive on a local liner (the Fat San) into a different way of doing things," he said."The race car was unloaded by many hands from the hold of the ship and placed dockside ready to be taken to the garage area, which was the local naval fleet work station," recalled Bartlett. "The incessant chatter of strange tongues as orders were given to get the job done safely worried us at first but the crews turned out to be very efficient."
Coffs Harbour-born Bartlett, also known by his nickname "KB", took out the Macau Grand Prix in 1969 behind the wheel of a Mildren-Waggott in Formula Libre, the same year he was crowned CAMS Gold Star in Australia for the second successive year.
For consecutive years Bartlett took out the Australian Drivers Championship and later teamed up with John Goss to win the arduous Bathurst 1000 in 1973. Bartlett was named in Wheels magazine's annual yearbook in 2004 as one of Australia's 50 greatest racing drivers, placed number 15.
Schuppan went one better than Bartlett to win the Macau Grand Prix twice - 1974 and 1976, behind the wheel of a March 72B-Ford and Ralt RT1-Ford respectively in Formula Pacific.
The South Australian-born Schuppan's claim to fame was to team up with Americans Hurley Haywood and Al Holbert to win the 1983 Le Mans 24-hour endurance race behind the wheel of a Porsche 956. Schuppan was the Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year in 1976.
Bartlett's victory at Macau was the first international Grand Prix victory for the popular Australian driver."So it reigns as the moment meaning the most significant race of my career up to that point," he said. "In fact, maybe it hasn't been surpassed by any other wins."
On reflecting his racing days in Macau, Bartlett said the race track was daunting for a first timer.
"They (the drivers) had to learn - and learn quickly - as the opposition had been there many times with race winners among them,' he said. "I went to the local motor-bike hire person and found a 125cc Yamaha that I was familiar with, hiring it in the lead up to practice.
"Riding around the track for hours late at night to beat the normal traffic seemed the solution. When finished each night I was able to switch lights off and have no need to guess the next curve.
"Sounds a bit dangerous now, but like most youths we were ignorant and bullet proof."
Bartlett said if a competitor wanted to compare Macau's road circuit with others, he would name Monaco and Pau in France as stand outs.
"The length, safety and complexity of the circuit are difficult to compare to any I'd driven including the Bathurst Mt Panorama one," he said.
"Though I saw a picture taken there (Bathurst) from the time I was able to do the first 100 mph lap average and it shows many traps for the unwary, to say the least."There was very little in the way of safety at Macau back then, Bamboo barriers only there to hold spectators away from the track edge. Light poles between track and sea-wall. Best to not make any errors was the concern."
Bartlett said the atmosphere at Macau when he was racing was not typical of many venues of the day.
"The people were eager to be of assistance, government and race organisation people were happy for you to be at their race," he said
It will be 45 years since that race win by Bartlett and he can still see so many pictures in my mind's eye as if it was last week.
"I went back to race there many times and my next best result was a second place," he said. "The challenge of doing well at such a venue lives with me forever and I appreciate that people still have that sense of history to include me in the celebration.
"Of all the destinations my career had taken me Macau is my favourite and I still have friends who reside there. My wife loves the place over all others as well."
Over the past six decades, the Macau Grand Prix has grown from an event for a gathering of amateur racing enthusiasts to "a shining jewel in international motorsport". From its humble beginnings in 1954, when a group of the Macau automotive enthusiasts held a motorised treasure hunt, it has evolved into a truly world recognised Grand Prix attracting drivers who would become the world's best and household names.Those to cut their teeth in competing on the notorious 6km road circuit have included Australian former world F1 champion Alan Jones, Mark Webber, Riccardo Patrese, Gerhard Berger, Martin Brundle, world champions Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher, Mika Häkkinen, Damon Hill,
Jenson Button, David Coulthard, Ralf Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton and current world champion Sebastian Vettel.
To complement the racing, the former Portuguese enclave will stage an accompanying food festival along with a spectacular fireworks display.
Macau Government Tourist Office Australia and NZ
phone (02) 9264 1488
www.macautourism.gov.mo
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