FEATURE

Meet-the-Author Session with Eli Solomon

Saturday, 30 August 2008

Lounge 1883, 2pm

What do a vintage blue racing car, a few good old men and black and white pictures all have in common?

They set the stage to an afternoon of nostalgic moments as SRC members and guests dived into a time capsule and were teleported back to the ’60s and ’70s era where the Singapore Grand Prix ruled the streets of Thomson Road!

In case you did not know, yes, Singapore had its own circuit before! The circuit of yesteryears were not lined by majestic buildings or a gigantic ‘wheel in the sky’, unlike that of the F1 night race. What they had though, were enormous monsoon drains, numerous lampposts and spectators that littered the roadside, inches away from the zooming race cars!

Eli Solomon, author of “Snakes and Devils: A History of The Singapore Grand Prix”, reminisced the days when ‘racing was safe and sex was dangerous’. He also guided the audience through a slideshow talk that traced the glory days of grand prix racing on the Thomson circuit.

The talk adopted a soft-launch concept to the book as SRC members were invited to buy the book at a discounted rate, plus having the chance to have it autographed by the author himself and a photo-taking session. Members were also able to rub shoulders with the speaker’s invited guests - some of Singapore’s daredevils who raced during the ’60s and ’70s!

The talk finished in pole position, with our SRC President, Dr Johnny Goh, and Eli Solomon, the author, exchanging mementos. Dr Goh received an autographed copy of the “Snakes and Devils” and went on getting autographs from the racers featured in the book and who were present at the talk.

Sham Latiff