Sunday 22nd April 1973

Vern Schuppan drove his March 722 to victory in the Singapore Grand Prix, a 50 lap Formula Libre race held on the public road Upper Thomson circuit. Singapore’s National Sports Promotion Board was the driving force behind the event (the write-up noted: “few governments of the free world take such a direct interest in motor sport…”). The public road course could hardly have been called safe even by 1973 standards, being about 24 feet wide, having less than a yard of guard rail and lined with banana groves for any driver unlucky enough to have an off. And the weather usually was high heat and high humidity. But despite this, each year selected drivers from Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Asia, Canada and the United States were whisked off to spend Easter in Singapore (Mike Hall and Brian Robertson represented the U.S. and Canada respectively). At the end of the grueling 156 mile race, Schuppan won comfortably ahead of New Zealand’s Graeme Lawrence in a Surtees TS15.