It’s nearing midnight, and people are flooding into Marina Bay. Some are off to exclusive afterparties, or to stand outside a party begging to be let in. Others crawl into cool hotel beds, resting weary heads before early flights. A new day dawns. People still adorned in team colours lug suitcases around streets, still surrounded by metal barricades and grandstands. But now only road cars remain. Billboards that just shone with racing heroes return to their normal programming. Formula 1 has left no trace behind.  

Formula 1 arrived in Singapore in 2008 as part of a landmark agreement, which saw it become the first night race in the sport’s history. It’s become the largest motorsport event in Southeast Asia, with all eyes on the Lion City for three days in late September. 

More than 1600 floodlights illuminate the Marina Bay Street Circuit during the Singapore Grand Prix weekend, but its grassroots motorsport future is looking dim. Unusual for a Formula 1 host country.   

There are two tracks used for competitive motorsports. Once the Marina Bay Circuit is packed down for another 12 months, one remains.  It’s hidden in the north, on the now-defunct Singapore Turf Club, where for 181 years locals flocked to see a different kind of horsepower in action. The KF1 Kranji Karting Circuit opened in 2014 on the horse racing facility. Many young Singaporeans got their start in motorsports there.  

The Turf Club ran its final horse race in October 2024, and while the checkered flag has yet to drop on the karting track, it looms ominously overhead. According to the Singaporean Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of National Development, this land has been earmarked for redevelopment into housing, leisure and recreation facilities as of March 2027, with no current plans to open a new permanent karting facility. 

Melvin Moh is young, sage, and has racing running through his blood. He’s the co-founder of Legion of Racers, and a driver and karting coach. He says he hopes Formula 1’s presence in Singapore can grow the sport, but admits it will be challenging without proper facilities. 

“This, from a motorsport standpoint, is quite sad news for Singapore. For a permanent race car track, it is quite difficult due to the limited space that Singapore has. I don’t think it’s up to us, but for grassroots like karting, it will be quite difficult for years, unless the government gives land or space for a karting track to be built.” 

“If this doesn’t happen, I think motorsport in Singapore will be quite tough. The next five years will not look very positive.”

Melvin Moh

Getting red-flagged

Asian motorsport heritage expert Eli Solomon has spent hours poring over videos, images and race records, hoping to preserve Singapore’s vibrant motorsport history. In 2008, he published Snakes and Devils, commemorating the original Singapore Grand Prix in the lead-up to the inaugural Night Race. He also released Rewind Magazine, which documents Asia’s motoring heritage.  

“It’s an important part of history, an important part of an overall motoring culture that we could end up losing entirely,” he says. 

Although the motoring scene has Australian and British influences, there were even stronger links between Singapore and Malaysia, which shared hosting duties decades ago, according to Solomon. 

“You had a Grand Prix in Singapore, the following week a Grand Prix in Selangor, and the week after that a Grand Prix in Penang. That was just the signature events. But you also had close to 50 events a year at club level for sprints and hill climbs. That was what drove the interest,” he says.  

Street racing in Singapore existed long before Formula 1 came knocking and is traced back to 1927, when Pasir Panjang Road hosted hill climbs and sprints. However, Grand Prix racing first reached Asia in 1940 when Johor, Malaysia, hosted an event to raise funds for World War II efforts. It was eventually paused because of the Japanese Occupation. 

Post-war, the Changi RAF base held a one-off event in 1957, attracting 103 entries and almost 100,000 spectators (the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix weekend attracted 269,000 spectators across three days). The demand drove the birth of another Grand Prix, and between 1961 and 1973, Old Upper Thomson Road was transformed into a racetrack, with drivers flocking from across the world to test their skill in front of knowledgeable and adoring crowds. Seven people lost their lives on this circuit during its 11-year run. The 1974 edition never happened – the race was cancelled due to safety concerns.  

Solomon explains there was an unwritten ban on all motorsport across the island from 1973 onwards. 

“It didn’t go to parliament because parliamentary records showed no cancellation or banning of the sport. It would have been done at cabinet level. You don’t have access to cabinet minutes,” he says.  

“If you look at the Hansard records for parliamentary debates, there is no mention of banning the sport. Every application made was rejected by the permanent secretary in government. Any sort of racing, you had to go to Malaysia.” 

Solomon, now 60 years old, says a generation of Singaporeans grew up without the sport because of the ban.  

“You just got to watch it on TV if you were lucky. They only started showing Formula 1 coverage live on TV, probably in the 1990s onwards. I’d say the guys who are looking at motorsports today had no idea that there was racing in Singapore up to 1973,” he says.  

Track limits

In 1984, Ringo Chong got his first licence. Not for the road, but for competition.  His passion for motorsport was passed down from his father, Chong Boon Seng, a Singapore Grand Prix competitor in the 1960s and 1970s. Fittingly, he would become the first Singaporean to win a race during the modern Formula 1 Grand Prix race weekend. Chong dreamed of hometown glory, and he achieved it three times in 2009, 2017 and 2018.  

“I went there to watch [my father] in 1972 and 1973 when I was about six or seven. I got mesmerised by him and wanted to become a race driver myself. It closed after 1973. There was no racing at all. It stayed dormant until the 80s when they had some local sprints and Gymkhanas in carparks and big open areas. We didn’t have much racing around here,” he says.  

Racing has always been in Chong’s blood. Photos: Supplied.

Success followed Chong to the carpark rallies of the 1980s and 1990s – he won those too. 

“It was the most prestigious race then, so you had to win it. I got into cars, won the rallies and from there I realised there was nothing to do here. I went to Malaysia and did all the racing there. They have proper circuits,” he says.  

Solomon was also involved in those carpark rallies and autotests, which he describes as fun, but treacherous for the cars, “It wasn’t a dangerous sport, but it was all we had,” he says. 

With nowhere to race but flat, barren carparks, making the pilgrimage across the border to Sepang International Circuit in Kuala Lumpur became a ritual for the Singaporean racing community. Solomon doubts Singapore will be home to a permanent racing circuit in the future.  

“We’ve got land issues, and the logical approach was to have it as a one-off annually. It would be a lot easier to manage. I think Singapore would never be able to have a permanent circuit. It wouldn’t make any sense at all,” he says. 

Singapore previously entertained the idea of having a permanent circuit, with talks happening across the 1970s and 1980s. Formula 1 reignited these talks, and finally, there was a breakthrough in 2010. The Changi Motorsport Hub’s proposal was approved, but short-lived and eventually abandoned in 2013. The Singapore Sports Council decided the costs outweighed the commercial viability of building it. Solomon was part of the consortium for the Changi hub and believes it could have been utilised beyond motorsports, for things like driver training programs, car manufacturer media opportunities, and heritage preservation. 

“There would be go-karting for young kids, take them outdoors, teach them how to drive, what camaraderie is, teach them what engineering skills are,” he says. 

“You could tie up with a university for engineering programs. It would create opportunities for people to go into engineering fields that may or may not be motor-related.  A lot of hectares would have to be utilised, but put together with a long-term plan, it probably would have been doable.” 

Sister team

If you were to ask Sujana and Sanjana Dandu who was quicker, they would both reply, “me.” 

The Perth-born twins, now 13, moved to Singapore in 2020 and first raced a kart during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sujana says there was ‘nothing to do’, while their father, Suram, says he entered his daughters into karts because it was a “non-contact sport.” That, of course, is never true. Drivers from karting to Formula 1 bang wheels all the time. 

Singapore’s competitive karting scene is small but devoted. The twin sisters have made a big impression in the short time they’ve been racing, and have shared the podium overlooking Kranji KF1 Karting Circuit’s bends and straights countless times. 

“Because we’re twins, we’re like magnets. Wherever I’ve finished, she’s one position ahead or one position behind, or somewhere very close,” Sanjana says. 

With more global initiatives to get girls into karting, Sanjana and Sujana have competed internationally many times. They say Singapore vastly differs from other countries.  

“I always do well in Thailand. Thailand’s track is good. There are more drivers, and it’s harder. Singapore is also very hard. It’s very small and it’s narrow. It’s hard to overtake,” Sanjana says.  

“I hope I can take the things I learned there and bring them here. Italy has very good drivers. Whilst the drivers and teams here are also very good, [Italy] is the pinnacle,” Sujana adds.  

Sujana and Sanjana Dandu during Singapore ROK CUP – Round 4. Photos: Rebecca Ruthven.

Chong, who had an international career as a driver and race team director, says current facilities are leaving Singaporean drivers underprepared for international competition. 

“When the track is too small, you only learn how to drive in the low-speed corners. You have no skill in carrying high-speed corners and don’t know how to drive high-speed. The moment you go into international racing, you go to Europe, you lose to the Europeans,” he says.  

Endurance race

In motorsport, the stopwatch never lies – Singapore’s tells us it’s on borrowed time.  Even the future of the Singapore Grand Prix looks murky, as its rights holder and pioneer, Ong Beng Seng, has been fined $23,400 after pleading guilty to a charge of abetting the obstruction of justice. Singapore’s Formula 1 contract runs until 2028, with the races remaining on the contract set to go ahead as planned. Beyond 2028, it is uncertain how Beng Seng’s legal issues may affect the Grand Prix’s future.  

Members of the community are holding out hope for a better future at grassroots level. Many of Chong’s dreams have come true, but he has one more he would like to see come to fruition in the future. 

“Build a proper go-kart track,” he says.  

“Look at Malaysia. You don’t have to go very far to look. You have so many nice, big go-kart tracks. From there, you improve, you create better racers. Then you bring up a younger generation, a new generation of drivers.”  

Ringo Chong

Moh agrees Singapore needs a successor to Kranji KF1 and says motorsport, both virtual and real, needs more promotion. 

“I hope the governing body, like Motorsport Singapore, or every party involved, can do more to promote not just real racing, but also E-sports,” he says. 

“Have more awareness, not always targeting big events like F1, but do more grassroots stuff so that it’s accessible for the public to experience. Once you build the lower base of the pyramid, you get more people going into the elite level. For now, the awareness, especially for sim racing, is quite low.”

This story was produced as part of a federal government New Colombo Plan-funded Curtin Journalism Singapore Study Tour.