No one talked about lack of run-off area because we were so young then.’ Of Schuppan, Macdonald said: ‘Vern, of course, got to the top but probably never reached the absolute top because he’s too darned straightforward, nice, honest and all those other good things that come up all too rarely.’John MacDonald’s new Brabham BT40 Ford ahead Steve Millen’s Elden Formula Fords(NAS)Macdonald was another favourite and had a brand new Brabham BT40 delivered to him in Singapore ahead of the race. Natural talent and character to boot. Geoff Brabham took a 274 to victory in the 1975 Australian Formula 2 Championship.Birrana Racing Cars Pty Ltd was closed in 1974. ( of which we won a few f2/f3 races. This 1960 Lotus Seven was my first racing car. The master switch on the roll-over bar had failed, it was shorted out to enable him to continue.Geoghegan ahead of Lawrence in their great dice early in the race (NAS)At the same time, Schuppan showered Ramsay’s 273 with rocks when he ran wide on a fast corner. The controlling bodies weren’t too keen on innovation back in the mid 70’s – the other car that was banned (and received a lot of publicity!) Witenden, a terrific bloke from Goulburn way, came within a point of winning the ’78 title in this 7 year old Birrana. Elfin 600C Repco 2.5 V8 4th place in the race won by Graeme Lawrence’s Ferrari 246T (Rewind)Max Stewart raced the 2-litre Rennmax Mildren-Waggott, and Malcolm Ramsay the ex-Cooper Elfin 600C Repco. Thought it was about time I added a little more information to the Birrana chassis list just to clear up a misconception. The car handled well, was forgiving and put its power down nicely. Birrana Engineering chief Malcolm Ramsay in his Birrana 273 ‘010’ Ford Hart during the 1973 Singapore Grand Prix, the last until the F1 era commenced in 2008… I have been meaning to write about Birrana’s jewels of cars for a while. Like mine, most were powered by the Ford Cortina-based 1500cc pre-crossflow engine, and the super-lightweight chassis frame made for a spirited car.It was in the U2 that I was able to first demonstrate the use of the six-point configuration for the racing driver's harness, which I had designed. Birrana was the name of two motor racing organisations, both associated with South Australian racing driver and engineer Malcolm Ramsay. Frank Gardner, Kevin Bartlett, John Bowe, Mark Skaife and Craid Lowndes spring readily to mind as some of the others. Tony Stewart, now there is a lost talent! Carter won the ’76 DTE series in this chassis, Birrana’s only Australian FF Championship victory.Bucolic Winton, Central Victoria, FF action in 1978. More about ‘Minos’ in the later Birrana article.One chassis was raced late in its life with a Waggott 2 litre DOHC 4 valve engine, which is the car I would personally like to own! I got increasingly competitive when driving the Birrana in the fastest categories in historic racing in Australia, and decided to look for a car to the Formula Atlantic specifications.
(NAS)Eli Solomon Singapore GP article in MotorSport March 2006, Peter Collins race report published in ‘Racing Car News’, oldracingcars.comA very big thanks to Peter Brennan and Bruce Allison for their recollectionsNational Archive of Singapore, Bruce Allison Collection, oldracephotos.com, Alan Cox, Rewind Magazine, MCI, Choong H Fong, Robert Davies, Paul King CollectionThe Australian stuff was easy ‘Spyder’ as I saw so many Birrana FF and F2 races in the 1970’s, I should have bought the ex-Geoghegan 274 when the Robsons had it for sale about 15 years ago, I spoke to Mal Ramsay at length about the car, looked at it 3 times and then bought a Ralt instead! He had borrowed and paid £43,000 – a fortune at the time – for a joint F1/F2 drive as a stepping stone to a Formula One career. Lots of sideways action, Aussie FF’s raced on Bridgestone RD102 road-radials in this period which made them wild to drive having driven my share of laps at the time! I bought it on a 1995 business trip to the USA, during a period when such "modern" cars did not have a race category for historic (vintage) in America. In his 70’s he is still a formidable F5000 pedaller! By that time Geoghegan had a new 273 of his own, whose number I do not know. It was generally known as the “Radio London” car.The car is one of only 15 similar models that were built with the powerful BMW 2-litre engine in full race configuration.I first bought the car from the Radio London team in 1967, and brought it out to Australia with us in February 1968. Singapore Airlines: Vern Schuppan (March Hart 722) 1h 38:58.3 (1:56.8)Fastest lap and new outright record: Geoghegan, 1:54.9.A gaggle of cars in the ’72 GP passes a group of flaggies doing their best to say out of the tropical heat, car at the rear perhaps Leo Geoghegan’s Brabham (NAS)The government claimed that the GP promoted dangerous driving in its citizens, these were the very successful times of the ‘paternalistic democratically elected despot’ Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. Van Diemen RF77. Report would be incorrect as cars in Aust.F2 all ran 8 valve engines for a few years yet. Brock’s too short single-seater/Birrana sojurn is told here; Regarding the image above captioned “73 Touring car race, help with cars/drivers welcome!”, I have found a photo in the Eli Solomon book “Snakes & Devils – A History of the Singapore Grand Prix” which provides some answers.