November 1978 – The Baron of Graffenried, Prince Birabongse of Thailand, Jack Brabham, Dan Gurney, Phil Hill, Mike Hailwood, Roy Salvadori, Hans Hermann, Srirling Moss, Jacky Ickx, and Innes Ireland… half a century of Grand Prix history gathered in Macao !!!

It was the jubilee of the sacred monsters – the 25th Macau Grand Prix: Racing aces such as Brabham, Moss, Gurney, Phil Hill, Hermann or Hailwood showed us once again that they have lost nothing of their superb mastery of the steering wheel.

You know,” remarks Prince Birabongse Bhanudej Bhanupandh of Thailand, 64 years old, “I remember very well the Grand Prix de France in 1954 in Reims. If that day my Maserati had not had the reserve tank hose blocked, I would have made third place after the Mercedes of Fangio and Kling.” There is a hint of nostalgia in the voice of this agile little man who puts the helmet for the first time in 23 years.

Next to him stands Jacky Ickx, eight-time Grand Prix winner, and the most brilliant endurance race driver of all time. Don’t you wear earplugs?” asks the Belgian. And Bira: “No, I need to hear the noise of the engine. It’s been like that since my best days.” The two get in the car, Ickx wins sovereignly, Bira arrives at the bottom of the pack.

The place of this strange meeting is Macao, an overseas Portuguese province with just under 300,000 inhabitants, 8,000 of whom own a car.

It’s all Bob’s fault,” says Bira, referring to Hong Kong businessman Bob Harper who owns a branch of his auto empire in Macau. This automotive giant in East Asia sells not only prestigious cars of various brands but also Japanese mass vehicles, as well as trucks. And he is an enthusiast of vintage cars as well as the owner of a racing stable.

But the ‘fault of Harper’ that Bira talks about is not to ardently promote the automobile in Macao with its 16 km2 only. Let’s give the floor to Harper himself: “It was in Australia that I had the idea of crowning the jubilee of the 25th Macau Grand Prix with a race of the giants, where the champions of the former Grand Prix would compete in identical cars.

To start, he ordered 20 Ford Escort 1.6 liters specially prepared for the race, to allow celebrities to train a little before taking over the driving. Then he sends to the stars of yesterday an invitation that is only declined by Juan Manuel Fangio and John Surtees. Fangio, who is a bit tired following a stay in Africa, sends a telegram of congratulations. Surtees, he replies that he would participate with great pleasure but that he is, alas, in the hospital.

However, the big names are not lacking on the list of guests that Jackie Stewart, champion of countless Grand Prix, can announce to his audience of viewers. There are Bobby Unser, the star of Indianapolis, world champions Jack Brabham, Denny Hulme and Phil Hill, Stirling Moss, the almost champion of several races, “Mike the Bike” Hailwood, versatile drivers like Dan Gurney, Roy Salvadori, Innes Ireland, Jacky Ickx or Hans Hermann, and among the older ones, Prince Bira and Baron Toulo of Graffenried. Finally, we still find Bill Wyllie, from Harper’s camp, and Teddy Yip, the latter’s fierce opponent.

Teddy Yip, who is considered in Macao as one of the secret governors of China, missed only one of the 25 Macau Grand Prix. Wyllie, for his part, took second place in this race in 1959, Yip a third place in 1963 with a Jaguar type E.

Still, the show of giants begins with a gigantic ‘barrel’. Jackie Stewart, who participates in the training ‘just for fun’, attacks too quickly the ‘Fisherman’s Bend’, a 90° turn facing the sea. The only part of the Escort that remains intact, after a flip worthy of a figure skater, is the front left side. What makes the happiness of the Austrian Dieter Quester: “During the training for touring cars, I had crushed the front left side of my Escort Zakspeed on the slide.” The wreck of Stewart will therefore be used to repair the Zakspeed, which would otherwise have been removed from service.

For the second training, we give Stewart a new car marked with markers to remind him where the top and bottom are. In the evening, all dressed up in their Harper jackets and ties, they chat among themselves during dinner at the “La Galera” restaurant or at the many cocktail parties, as if we were dealing with a world championship.

Upon his arrival in Hong Kong, Mike Hailwood had told Denny Hulme: “I remember the time when we got drunk the day before a race.” And Bobby Unser’s first question in Macau was: “Where is the nearest bistro?”.

Yet on 24 October, the eve of the Grand Prix, Hailwood and Unser hardly drink, and Roy Salvadori and Innes Ireland – normally a keen whisky enthusiast – draw with a thoughtful air the reading glasses from their cases.

Salvadori: “Innes, let me see the training times once again. I can’t understand how Unser got so ahead of me, since for several laps I was right behind him.

And Ireland to pull from her pocket a sketch of the circuit: “Tell me, Roy, how do you manage the speed changes on this circuit? For me, the drive almost completely fell through because my accelerator cable broke.

Hailwood, Hulme and Brabham are so absorbed in their dialogue that they forget the rosé on their table. The boy, who arrives three times to fill their glasses, stumbles away each time.

Only Teddy Yip seems serene, but before the start he pulls from the chest pocket of his suit a medallion that he kisses fervently, under the amused eyes of Jacky Ickx. Ickx, who everyone says is too young to participate, has just declared to a Chinese journalist: “I am too old to continue doing Formula 1.” How old are you?” asks the Chinese. – Ickx: “53”. And the other believes him.

It’s Yip, by the way, who is no longer there after the second lap. From the circuit comes the news that his Escort is parked in front of his house. He went home to drink tea, just to calm his nerves,” say the gossips around the stands.

It’s because the car that Harper gave me wasn’t turning properly”, is the excuse of this senior rider, who apparently doesn’t appreciate this “Harper Show” on Yip territory.

Apart from Jacky Ickx, who holds the lead of the pack on his own, the race offers pure suspense. There are only 20 seconds between the second, Mike Hailwood, and the eighth, Phil Hill. Berthe, the widow of Graham Hill, who agreed to hold the lap table for Rallye Racing, groaned: ‘We had to be damn careful! I have rarely seen during a Grand Prix so many passing maneuvers on the finish line.

To paint a picture of the events, here are some remarks captured during the flight during the race. Moss launches in Hailwood:
– You bastard, what possessed you to hold me against the slide in the hairpin bend?
– Sorry, Stirling, it’s because I don’t have experience with touring cars, I just wanted to give you a little flank.
– A little hit in the flank? You make me laugh, it split my left front tire, otherwise I would have certainly made a second or third place.
– Yes, I know, today I was a bad boy.
“And how,” thunders the ex-para Robert McGregor. “I doubled you up the slope, and within the rules. Do you think that’s a reason to get into me so much, just before the hairpin bend, that my car made a meter-high jump …
 And almost crashed on the hood of my car “, adds Roy Francesco Salvadori, who is only Italian by name. Salvadori, second in the German Grand Prix in 1958 and champion of Le Mans the following year, does a good job in the race in Macao, he doubles Graffenried and lifts his foot just before the finish to let him pass. Here is a well-bred British gentleman! He does not complain about the blow in the flank that Dan Gurney gave him at the first turn: “Dan is a magnificent boy.”

Similarly, Jack Brabham, after having snubbed Stirling Moss in the seventh round, shows that he knows how to lose with dignity. As in Monaco in 1970, the last lap is fatal to him. That year, his almost certain victory came to an end at the last turn in the bales of straw. In Macao, Bobby Unser tightens it against the slide in the chicane near the Lisboa Hotel. ‘So, of course, they all passed me. But that’s how it is, car racing.

In the evening, it’s the fanfares, the podium ceremony, and a moving speech delivered by Bob Harper at the Macau theater, then the parties to celebrate the champions.

A good old custom that is completely lacking in today’s Grands Prix. Maybe it takes 15,000 km by plane to witness such a thing.

Article by Jochen von Osterroth
Originally published on 19-12-2002