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56-665: There was only one championship held in Asia from 1994 until 2002, organized and promoted by Motorsport Asia Ltd. It was established to assist young Asian drivers make the transition from karting to European formulae such as Formula Ford and Formula Renault. Rounds were held in India, Indonesia, Malaysia and China. A special invitation race was also held annually at the Macau Grand Prix . It was replaced by Formula BMW Asia in 2003. Japanese female driver Keiko Ihara finished third in

112-688: A Formula One race, and 1995 was the last time a Macau Grand Prix winner won a Formula One race. The event received world championship status from 2005 to 2014 as the final round of the World Touring Car Championship . The Macau Grand Prix race weekend normally starts on the Thursday and ends on the Sunday on the second or third week of November. The first two days (Thursday and Friday) are generally scheduled for practice and qualifying. All races are held on Saturday and Sunday, with

168-683: A car as fast as F3 racing here anymore." said Rodrigues. Double Formula 4 Macau Grand Prix winner Charles Leong shared the same opinion as the cost of participating in Formula Regional is less than in Formula 3 , and said that the FR World Cup would not be less competitive. Moreover, André Couto , who is the winner of the 2000 Macau Grand Prix , expected that the competitiveness and level of excitement wouldn't be affected. However, he believes that changes would be brought for

224-618: A joint promotion between Automobile General Association Macao-China (AAMC), Hong Kong Automobile Association (HKAA) and Zhuhai Motorsports Association. The drivers were from Hong Kong, Macau and mainland China. Except the Macau GT Cup, the Greater Bay Area GT Cup has been on the calendar since 2019, which replaced the Greater Bay Area Lotus Cup. The race includes talented GT drivers mainly from

280-492: A parked car and then continued on before hitting a truck, killing a pedestrian (a tourist who was not part of the event), injuring three others and while Verschuur suffered back and leg injuries. The incident led to his team, Renault Dealer Team Holland, to pull out of the race as a mark of respect. 2012: Philip Yau  [ zh ] : In a WTCC-spec Chevrolet Cruze in the CTM Touring Car Cup invitational,

336-515: A part failure led to the car making contact with the Turn 2 (Mandarin Oriental) wall at speeds over 200 km/h. The rescue team tried to put out the fire with the fire extinguisher. The driver was airlifted to the hospital, but died shortly afterwards. 2018: Sophia Flörsch : Suffered a spinal fracture after her Formula 3 car became airborne after contact leading into Lisboa corner, flipping over

392-528: A relatively unsuccessful year in 1977, Yip commissioned Ron Tauranac to build him a Formula One car. Eddie Cheever failed to qualify in both Brazil and Argentina but Keke Rosberg took the car to a shock victory at the 1978 BRDC International Trophy at Silverstone, a non-championship race that was held in extremely wet conditions that year. Rosberg qualified for only one Grand Prix that year, in South Africa . In 1979, Yip helped to fund Ensign but

448-551: A sponsorship deal. The title race was first held in 1954 as a sports car race. In 1961, it switched to Formula Libre regulations until 1974, when Formula Pacific became the rule. 1983 was a start of the new era with the introduction of the Formula 3 , which attracted drivers from European Formula 3 championships and the Japanese Formula 3 Championship . 2019 introduced the Dallara F3 2019 machinery, with

504-574: A statement regarding the change, saying that the FR cars would be more suitable for Macau and the Macau Grand Prix would continue being the only organiser of the aforementioned FIA World Cup. F3 racers Gabriele Minì , who finished the 2023 Macau Grand Prix in third, Laurens Van Hoepen and Nikita Bedrin expressed their unimpressed opinion on the change. Macanese Formula 4 racer Tiago Golovko Rodrigues also expressed his thoughts on

560-717: A support class with the Asian Formula Three cars. Macau Grand Prix The Macau Grand Prix ( Portuguese : Grande Prémio de Macau ; Chinese : 澳門格蘭披治大賽車 ) is an annual motorsport road racing event for automobiles and motorcycles held on the Guia Circuit in Macau . The event includes the Formula Regional and Motorcycle Grand Prix title races, with other races for touring , grand touring and sports cars. The first Macau Grand Prix

616-468: A team at the Macau Grand Prix and was behind the switch from Formula Pacific rules to Formula Three rules in 1983. The result was a huge success and Theodore Racing won the event many times, notably with Ayrton Senna in 1983. Yip reduced his involvement in motor racing sponsorship in the late 1980s and finally sold his share of his company in Macau to his brother-in-law. His son Teddy Yip Jr. revived

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672-527: A top speed of 275 km/h (171 mph) at the end of the straight ), tight corners and uncompromising crash barriers; the Macau Grand Prix races are considered some of the most demanding in the world. Many current or former Formula One drivers have participated in the event early in their careers and some of them have won the prestigious prize. Previous winners include Ayrton Senna , Michael Schumacher , David Coulthard , Ralf Schumacher , Ralph Firman , Takuma Sato and Dan Ticktum . The Macau Grand Prix

728-507: A total of 17 deaths from accidents at or related to the circuit; in total, nine motorcyclists, five car drivers, one spectator, official and bystander each. Eight of those are from Hong Kong. 1967: Arsenio Laurel : Killed when he lost control of his Lotus 41 and hit the corner sea wall, now called Mandarin Bend. He was trapped in his Formula car and burned. 1971: David Ma: whilst qualifying, he lost control of his Lotus 47 under braking for

784-590: Is a bronze driver, regardless of his accomplishments). In 2020 to 2022, the Macau GT Cups locally organised (not by SRO as a part of FIA GT World Cup) due to the local pandemic of COVID-19 . In 2023, the race organisation returned to SRO. In 2018 the Greater Bay Area Lotus Cup was added to the GP events. This was a single make race with all competitors driving a Lotus Exige . The race was

840-627: Is closer to the legendary British open-road races than a regulation MotoGP circuit. In 2014, the award-winning documentary Macau Gladiators by German director Andreas Knuffmann appeared. The movie is about the 2013 edition of the Motorcycle Grand Prix and followed the Team of Frank Heidger with the German Didier Grams (8th place) and his Belgian teammate Marc Fistette (DNF). The first Guia Race for touring cars

896-484: Is presented to the manufacturer supplying the cars with a manufacturer entry with the highest number of points after addition of the points of its two best cars awarded according to the result of the Main Race. Starting in 2017, there is an age limit for drivers; drivers may be no older than 59 years 364 days, as bronze-level drivers are prohibited from participation. (Under FIA driver grading rules, any driver over 60

952-542: The Casino Lisboa along with Stanley Ho (the brother of his wife Susie Ho ) and their two other partners ( Yip Hon and Henry Fok ). The STDM transformed Macau into a major tourist destination. Yip was the force behind the Macau Grand Prix , a prestigious annual motor racing event in the streets of Macau often won by drivers who would go on to great success in Formula One. Yip started racing cars for fun in

1008-584: The Greater Bay Area . In 2023, it was separated as the GT3 and GT4 Cups. The 3.8 miles (6.2 km) Guia Circuit features a combination of fast straights and tight corners, with the circuit's minimum width being only seven metres. It is recognised as one of the most challenging circuits in the world. The circuit had a Grade 2 (Restricted) FIA track license in October 2023. As of 2024, there has been

1064-771: The WTCC before returning back to TCR standards under the World Touring Car Cup banner in 2018, where it has been a TCR championship series race. From 2018 to 2019 it was the World Touring Car Championship, while in 2020 it was run for the TCR China Touring Car Championship (primarily with drivers representing China and its regions). From 2021 to 2022, it was run as a TCR Asia Series race, again for drivers representing Asia, and since 2023 it has been part of

1120-575: The 1950s. In 1974 Yip sponsored Australian driver Vern Schuppan in a Formula 5000 team managed by Sid Taylor and in Formula One with Team Ensign . In 1975 he continued to sponsor Schuppan in races in America and for 1976 supported Alan Jones in the US Formula 5000 series, also establishing his Theodore Racing , run by Taylor, who entered an Ensign in F1 with Patrick Tambay as the driver. After

1176-456: The 1971 Guia Race winner, to retire from racing months later. 1979: Tong Zheng Hui: at the ACP saloon car support race, Tong's Toyota Corolla coupe and Bobby Chung Datsun Sunny collided with each other and caught fire at Excelsior Bend, killing Tong and hospitalizing the other with serious injuries. The third driver involved, Wong Weng Kwong, was critically injured after crashing into barrier at

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1232-584: The AF2000 race at the 2002 Macau Grand Prix, becoming the first woman on the podium in the event's 50-year history. Drivers who have taken part in Formula Asia include: Michael Vergers , Narain Karthikeyan , Alex Yoong , Ananda Mikola , Bagoes Hermanto , Takuma Sato , Mark Goddard , Parthiva Sureshwaren , Karun Chandhok , Denis Lian , Jim Ka To and Danny Watts . The cars were later used as

1288-623: The Grand Prix event to Cotai . Later, in 2020, former president of the Macau SAR Sports Bureau Manuel Silverio also suggested to move the Macau Grand Prix to Cotai instead during an interview of TDM Canal . "It might be the appropriate time to use a new circuit. For instance, in Cotai, so that it can relieve a great amount of pressure for visitors and locals." This suggestion never happened as he wasn't

1344-851: The Grand Prix since then. The FIA GT World Cup is a race for GT3-spec cars , organized by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO) and the Automobile General Association Macau-China (AAMC). The event was confirmed by the FIA at the World Motor Sport Council in Geneva on 20 March 2015. The winning driver of the event is the winning driver of the Main Race, but the award for the FIA GT World Cup for Manufacturers

1400-465: The Grand Prix. Prize money at this time was not substantial, with 1980 winner Geoff Lees receiving thirty-four dollars and 1981 winner Bob Earl receiving thirty-six. In 1983, it was decided by the organisers that since Formula Pacific was becoming obsolete, the race would be held as a Formula Three event. Initially, they wanted to run a F2 race, but as they were unwilling to make any large circuit modifications, which included cutting down trees,

1456-460: The Guia Race, he lost control of his Zakspeed Ford Escort RS 1600 when it suffered from a blowout. The car hit a sea wall, spun across the rain-soaked track and ploughed into the mostly unprotected crowd, consisting of several young spectators. One of them, an eight-year-old child, later died of his injuries and five children between six and ten received hospital treatment. The accident led Glemser,

1512-719: The Kumho TCR World Tour , which allows drivers from China and Asia series to participate. Starting from 2008, the Macau Touring Car Cup was added in the calendar. In 2022 and 2023 it was the final round of the China Touring Car Championship , whilst in 2024 TCR China joined the field of the TCR World Tour for their finale. The Macau GT Cup was added in 2008, and has been one of the most important supporting races of

1568-651: The Netherlands and took Dutch nationality. He moved to Hong Kong in the 1940s and began to build up his business empire which included travel agencies, hotels, casinos and trading companies. Yip spoke many languages including six Chinese variants (most notably Hakka , it being his native tongue, and Mandarin and Cantonese due to his residence in Hong Kong and Macau), Dutch (through his life experience during Dutch colonial rule and his Dutch citizenship), English , French , German , Malay (inasmuch as he

1624-527: The Statue Corner, striking into a lamp post. Ma was killed instantly. The wrecked remains of his car was dumped at sea on its return trip. 1972: Chan Shui Fat: at the Guia Race, his Mini Cooper went out of control at more than 100 mph and left the road. Chan jumped out of the car before it crashed into a wall and burst into flames. He died from internal bleeding shortly after being admitted to hospital. 1974: Dieter Glemser : during practice for

1680-562: The TY01 was driven by Tambay at the start of 1981. Tambay left mid-season to join Ligier and was replaced by Marc Surer . The car was developed in 1982, but with no success forthcoming, Yip merged Theodore with Ensign and ran the Ensign N183 design as a Theodore. Johnny Cecotto and Roberto Guerrero drove the car, but at the end of that season the team shut down. For many years, Yip ran

1736-455: The catch fencing and striking a photographers' bunker. Motorcycle fatalities: The society of Macau is developing rapidly. During every edition of the Grand Prix, traffic in the outer harbour area becomes severely disrupted. In 2007, politician Stanley Au Chong-kit pointed out that the Macau Grand Prix should be suspended as it wastes money and brings negative impacts to locals. Meanwhile, affairs commentator Tam Chi Keung suggested to move

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1792-434: The demonstration of Macau's anti-epidemic results to the world, restoring tourists' confidence and intention to travel to Macau, and drive the tourism, hotel and catering industries. It also hoped to promote the recovery of the construction, transportation and automobile maintenance industries through the linkage effect of the Grand Prix, thus boosting the economy, creating jobs, increasing employment for citizens, and minimising

1848-711: The entrants—all of them from the FIA Formula 3 Championship —using equal cars and engines for the first time. In 2020 , 2021 and 2022 , the title race was run as a part of China's Formula 4 championship with exclusively local drivers and teams, as the COVID-19 pandemic forced travel restrictions on international FIA F3 drivers and teams. For 2024, the race returned to the 1983–2018 format of Formula Regional where drivers of various European, North American, and Asian Formula Regional championships are eligible to participate. International and national series to include

1904-516: The event. He pointed out that the switch would bring both positive and negative effects. For the positive, the FR World Cup would attract more and younger racers participating in the event. On the other hand, the great tradition within motorsport and Macau is lost. "In the SAR , F3 is one of the most prestigious races in the world and brings more interest than FR . We will also probably never have

1960-609: The final rounds of the heavyweights Macau Formula 3 Grand Prix and the Touring Car Guia Race (the final 2 rounds of the World Touring Car Championship ), as well as the FIA GT World Cup, held on the last day. Both the Macau Formula 3 Grand Prix and the Guia Race are sanctioned by the FIA and the winner of the Macau Formula 3 Grand Prix is awarded the FIA World Cup. Apart from the two major races held at

2016-513: The impact of the epidemic on society and people's livelihood. The Sports Bureau believed that holding the Macau Grand Prix is meaningful to Macau, therefore hoped the society and citizens to understand and fully support the event. In May 2024, the FIA announced that from 2024 onwards, the Macau Grand Prix would feature Formula Regional machinery, replacing the FIA F3 World Cup. The Macau Grand Prix Organising Committee (MGPOC) issued

2072-455: The oil slick, striking into two firemen and three track officials, before crashing into a barrier, destroying the car frontally. The fireman later died from his injuries. 2000  [ zh ] : Frans Verschuur: during the warm-up session for the Guia touring car race, his Renault Megane suffered a brake failure as he entered Lisboa. The car ploughed into several tyre barriers before hitting

2128-492: The organisers decided to adopt Formula 3 cars for the feature race and it was sanctioned by FIA as the F3 World Cup title race. At the same time, Yokohama Tire was officially designated as the sole supplier of control tires for the competitors. This decision has seen the reputation of the event in the motorsport world increase rapidly, with the event attracting the best young drivers from Europe and Japan. The first F3 race

2184-503: The president of the Macau Grand Prix Organising Committee (MGPOC) Ao Ieong U refused to answer questions from local media. The Macau SAR Sports Bureau issued a press release stating that holding the Macau Grand Prix doesn't only proves that the government is confident in pandemic prevention, and also the determination to promote post-epidemic economic recovery. Holding the Macau Grand Prix could show

2240-580: The president of the bureau anymore. Due to travel restrictions, foreign racers and riders were not able to attend the 67th edition of the Grand Prix, making the event downgraded to " Greater Bay Area only". The Motorcycle Grand Prix was cancelled, and visitors to Macau were lower than expectations. However, the Macau SAR Government persisted in holding the Grand Prix using 250 million patacas which caused dissatisfaction among local people. The Macau SAR Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture and

2296-661: The prestige of the race. During an interview after a press conference of a sporting event in Macau, the principal of the Macau SAR Sports Bureau, Pun Weng Kun stated that the Sports Bureau disagreed on views saying that the FR World Cup would lower the influence of the Macau Grand Prix and the new competition would attract more international drivers. Teddy Yip (businessman) Theodore Yip ( Chinese : 葉德利 ; pinyin : Yè Délì ; Jyutping : jip6 dak1 lei6 ; 2 June 1907 - 11 July 2003)

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2352-409: The race in an Alpine A220 (chassis #1722). Alpine Renault had also sent engineer Jean-Paul Castilleux to assist Bianchi with technical aspects of the car. Bianchi's victory and exposure led to more professional racing teams entering the Grand Prix in the following years. The motorcycle race was introduced in 1967, and in that year the first fatal tragedy struck the race: double champion Dodjie Laurel

2408-640: The race weekend, the Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix is also one of the highlights of the weekend since it features former or current racers of the Superbike World Championship and stars of Britain's legendary open-road motorcycle races such as the Isle of Man TT . Newly introduced into the 2007 race Macau GT Cup is the race for GT3 category cars. Since 2015 the winner of the race is awarded the FIA GT World Cup. Over

2464-585: The race with the best aggregate time. Other notable winners include Formula One drivers David Coulthard , Ralf Schumacher and Takuma Sato . Since the introduction of F3 races, the Macau GP has gradually become a stepping stone for many F3 drivers to higher class motor-racing competitions such as the FIA Formula 2 Championship and Formula One. However, only three drivers in the field in the 2010s – Valtteri Bottas in 2011, Max Verstappen in 2014, and Charles Leclerc in 2015—who have started this race have won

2520-463: The race: Macau is a special event for motorcycle riders. The Motorcycle Grand Prix has featured notable top-level riders, with winners of the race including MotoGP World Champion Kevin Schwantz , Superbike World Champion Carl Fogarty , notable MotoGP rider Ron Haslam and Isle of Man legends Michael Rutter , Michael Dunlop , and John McGuinness . Because of the street circuit nature, the course

2576-521: The same place immediately before collision. 1998: At the Supercar Cup (the predecessor of GT World Cup), a Ferrari 348 caught fire due to an oil leak, this almost spread to the Ferrari of Aaron Kwok , causing him to park up and bail out. The driver parked the burning car in the pits with two firefighters trying to extinguish the fire. A Porsche 911T lost control spun out of control after hitting

2632-494: The team did not score any points. At the end of 1978 and through 1979 Yip also funded a British F1 programme with Walter Wolf Racing WR3, WR4 and WR6 cars for David Kennedy who finished runner up in the series in 1979. His British F1 programme also ran Desiré Wilson in Wolf WR4 to a famous win at Brands Hatch in 1980. Kennedy moved to Shadow in 1980 with, initially, Stefan Johansson and later Geoff Lees as team mate but

2688-734: The team was chronically underfunded and using a very poorly engineered DN11 chassis. After a few races Yip took over ownership from founder Don Nichols and introduced a DN12 chassis which also proved a failure. After both cars failed to qualify for the French Grand Prix in June Yip closed down the Shadow team. Yip rethought his involvement in racing and ended most of his other activities in order to concentrate on F1. Yip then established Theodore Racing Ltd. and recruited designer Tony Southgate and team manager Jo Ramírez . A new car called

2744-766: The years, the Macau Grand Prix's Guia Race for touring cars had belonged to the Asian Touring Car Championship , and the current GT Cup race was once the Supercar Cup for road going exotic sports cars., the Formula Renault race, the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia race, the scooter race for locals and in the past but on a less than frequent basis, a Jackie Chan endorsed race for celebrity women drivers (partnered with pro racers) involving Mitsubishis , with whom Chan hold

2800-524: Was an Indonesian-Dutch businessman and a Formula One team owner of Theodore Racing in the 1970s. He was a polyglot . Yip, an ethnic Indonesian Chinese of Hakka ancestry from Meixian , Guangdong , China was born as Jap Tek Lie in Medan , on the island of Sumatra , Indonesia in 1907. At that time Indonesia was the Dutch East Indies , a colony of the Netherlands. Teddy Yip studied in

2856-428: Was born and spent his childhood in Indonesia prior his move to the Netherlands for his studies), and Thai (which helped him expand his businesses into property and finance). In 1962 he and several partners formed the Sociedade de Turismo e Diversões de Macau (STDM) with a monopoly to run all casino operations and many other leisure activities in Macau, including lotteries, ferries and hotels. Teddy Yip established

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2912-475: Was held in 1954 as a sports car event. In 1967, the Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix was introduced. In 2008, a GT3 race was added to the event, which became known as the FIA GT World Cup. The Formula 3 Macau Grand Prix featured many national Formula 3 champions and drivers from around the world, with the winner being awarded the FIA Formula 3 World Cup. Due to the challenging nature of the Guia Circuit, which consists of fast straights (a Formula 3 car can reach

2968-429: Was held in 1972. The event was notable in that very few touring car races were held on street circuits at the time. From 2005 to 2014, the race became the final two rounds of the FIA World Touring Car Championship . In 2015, the race changed formulae to the TCR Touring Car specifications. From 2015-16, the race was part of the TCR International Series . In 2017, it became the pentultimate Super 2000 formula race for

3024-415: Was killed when he lost control of his car and crashed. This raised the alarm for more safety improvements for the race. Teddy Yip was one of the main forces behind the Macau Grand Prix back in the 1970s and 1980s, leading this Grand Prix to be one of the world's most famous motor racing events. The Macau Grand Prix parties he hosted for many years at his home also became a central part of the social aspect of

3080-462: Was originally conceived in 1954 as a treasure hunt around the streets of the city, but shortly after, it was suggested that the hunt's course could host a racing event for local motor enthusiasts. Production car races joined the event in 1957, which were superseded by touring cars in 1972. In 1961, the title race became an open-wheel Formula Libre event. The race continued as an amateur race until 1966, when Belgian driver Mauro Bianchi entered

3136-444: Was won by a young Ayrton Senna . The race in 1990 was a memorable one, as Michael Schumacher and Mika Häkkinen were involved in an incident when they were in first and second going into the final lap. At the main straight just after the Mandarin Oriental Bend, Häkkinen hit the back of Schumacher's car and crashed out when he attempted to overtake him. Schumacher's car was able to continue with its rear wing damaged and eventually won

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