Musings from the Macau Grand Prix

Words and photos Manny N. de los Reyes

Macau-I can't believe it's been almost three decades since I last set foot on this beautiful and historic Eurasian city. I was a high school sophomore back then, and my beloved father took me and my younger brother to our very first live race, the Macau Grand Prix.

It was 1982 (if memory serves me right) and while I can't remember who won the Formula 3 feature race that year, I can never forget the sight of the pole-sitting car in the Supercar Cup race. It was a Koenig-modified quad-turbo wide-body 12-cylinder Ferrari Berlinetta Boxer 512, the predecessor of the iconic 1984 Testarossa. Next to it on the front row was the ultimate poster car of every high-octane-blooded teenager in the '70s and '80s, the incredible Lamborghini Countach.

At a time when a Toyota Celica was already one of the most head-turning cars in Metro Manila and BMWs weren't even available locally, the sight of so many Italian and British exotics (Maseratis, Aston Martins, Jaguars, and Lotuses were aplenty in that Macau grid) left an indelible impression on me.

Fast forward to 2009. Macau is now a mix of the old world/old rich charm of Monaco and the high stakes gambling appeal of Las Vegas. Beautiful old world European architecture on one side of Macau sits in stark contrast to the side from which now sprouts modern Vegas-originated hotels like The Venetian (where we stayed), Sands, MGM Grand, Four Seasons, Riviera, Wynn, etc. And I'm back for the 56th running of the Macau Grand Prix.

The feature event is still the Formula 3 race, often referred to as "the race that decides the champion of champions," as top-ranked drivers from the respective F3 series in Britain, Germany, Italy, and Japan race each other. F3 is considered a stepping stone to F1, previous Macau GP F3 winners being no less than Ayrton Senna in 1983, Michael Schumacher in 1990 (after his infamous coming together with Mika Hakkinen), and David Coulthard in 1991.

The other highlight is the WTCC (World Touring Car Championship) race, which truly demonstrated the tight racing between chief rivals Chevrolet, BMW, and Seat in this hard-fought series where all cars ride on Yokohama tires.

Yokohama/Advan has been exclusively supplying high-performance tires for the Macau GP's F3 races since 1983. In addition, the final round of the WTCC-the one held in Macau-has also been using Yokohama tires exclusively since 2006. This arrangement was recently extended to include the years 2010 to 2012, making Yokohama the Macau GP WTCC control tire for seven straight years.