The S'pore Grand Prix: past, present and future.

Wow, this year's Singapore Grand Prix (a night race, and shown "live" on national TV) was full of spills and thrills! It went all the way to the full two hours too.

And a new deal has just been concluded -- no doubt timed for publicity effect -- which will see the SGP run till 2017 under the new contract terms.

Here's insing.com's story:

S'pore extends Formula One contract for another 5 years

http://news.insing.com/tabloid/singapore-extends-formula-one-contract-for-another-five-years/id-c75f3f00

Bernie Ecclestone: The "Johnny Walker" of F1

The story of this British billionaire, Formula One's supremo, is amazing (you can check the Internet for his bio). Aged 81, he's still going strong. A large part of the success in clinching a new contract for the Singapore GP was due to the efforts of Ecclestone and Singapore's Second Minister for Home Affairs & Trade and Industry S Iswaran.

Here's a quick-on-the-draw quote from Ecclestone when asked about details of the contract terms: "A gentleman should never speak about money and last night!"

Here's The Sunday Time's pic of the two gentlemen (Ecclestone and Iswaran) at their post-whatever press conference:

 
Here's a brief history of the Singapore Grand Prix, from its beginning in 1961 till its final staging in 1973, and its resumption as a night race in 2008:

http://en.espnf1.com/f1/motorsport/page/2610.html

Growing up as a teen in the 1960s, I keenly followed the annual GP races at the Old Thomson Road circuit. I went to at least a few of the races and remember names like Chris Conn (Norton Manx works motorcycle) and Fumio Ito (Yamaha works motorcycle) and their famous duel in the 1963 GP; and Albert Poon (motorcars).

The events were not like today's and had a carnival air about them: we chose our vantage spots behind the fences; and drink- and snack-sellers were a-plenty as we endured the (I think) afternoon heat. Vintage and classic cars were trotted out and one popular event was the race among unmodified saloon and sports cars, with marques like Jaguar Es, Ford Cortinas, BMC Minis, and Alfa Romeos competing.

But the thriller events were the premier motorcycle and motorcar events. While the former saw works teams competing, the latter was a strange assemblage of single-seat racers like the Brabham -Fords, twin-seaters like the Jaguar Ds and the saloons and sports cars which had taken part in the earlier event mentioned above.

Best of all, I found on the Net a (albeit grainy) YouTube clip of the 1966 SGP. Enjoy!...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clm3TsotsPo