Batu Tiga was once Malaysia's motor racing playground, what the heck happened?

2003 was the year that saw the end of an era in Malaysia. No, it wasn’t the “father of modern Malaysia” stepping down (for the first time), the third year of the new millennium saw the legendary Batu Tiga Circuit in Shah Alam demolished to make way for a new suburban housing project called D’Kayangan.

It’s a sad and depressing end for a circuit that was considered Malaysia’s home of motor racing. The demolition of the Batu Tiga Circuit was akin to destroying a sacred monument.

Though the Sepang Circuit is a work of technical and technological achievement, it loses out the grassroots authenticity of the 3.5-km long circuit located close to the heart of KL.

Admittedly, I’m too young to experience the joys of popping over to Batu Tiga on a weekend to see bumper-to-bumper action. I didn’t even grow up in the city but through the photos and old footage, it certainly feels better than racing against (or like) yobbos in Ulu Yam.

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For nearly 40 years, Batu Tiga hosted all kinds of races from superbikes to touring cars. It even hosted the legendary Group C race cars in the 1980s but despite all that glam, it remained a circuit firmly rooted with amateur and semi-pro races.

Batu Tiga wasn’t the only race circuit in Malaysia prior to the opening of Sepang in the 1990s. There was also the Johor Circuit which opened in 1986 and the state was also the venue of Malaysia’s first-ever Grand Prix race held in 1940.

The early days of the Malay(si)an Grand Prix

The 1940 Johor Grand Prix was held to raise funds for the war effort in Europe by the then Tunku Mahkota of Johor, Sultan Ismail ibni Almarhum Sultan Ibrahim. It consisted of 4 races within a span of 2 days and teams raced on a newly-built 3.7-km long road in the heart of Johor Bahru.

The first race was a relative success with 15 invitations sent out to teams in Johor, Singapore, Perak, Selangor, Penang, and Melaka. However, due to the devastating effects of the Japanese Occupation, it would be another 8 years before the second Johor Grand Prix would take place.

Eventually, the state would organise a few more Grand Prix races all the way through the 1960s. Other states held race events too like the Penang Grand Prix. However, the first true Malaysia Grand Prix would happen in 1962 where it would take place in Singapore.

If you remember your history lesson, it was a year was before Singapore was briefly a part of Malaysia. According to some sources though, races held there before 1965 were part of the lineage of the Malaysian Grand Prix history.

These races were held on what were essentially public roads. As a result of issues like road safety and traffic disruption to residents, a need to build a permanent circuit was considered.

This was interesting at the time since most permanent race circuits were based in Europe and the Americas. Races that happened in Asia were mostly on street circuits and for a young nation like Malaysia, this was an opportunity to showcase itself to the motoring world.

Satiating a growing need for speed

During the post-war era, motor racing was an event held and competed by those flushed with cash. In fact, the first motorsports club in Malaysia, the Malayan Motor Sports Club (MMSC) was formed in 1950 by a group of British expats, most of them plantation owners.

Hence, some race events organised by them were held within their estates. These included hill climbs, rally events, and grass track racing.

Although the competition was mostly participated by the rich, it attracted a lot of spectators from all walks of life. Later on, this would prompt smaller local teams to take part just for the thrill of it.

Eventually, the Selangor state government, through the Selangor State Development Corporation (PKNS) invited MMSC to initiate the country’s first-ever proper road circuit. In March 1966, the club chose a parcel of land in the newly-developed Batu Tiga area as the location for Malaysia’s new race track.

Located between the Shah Alam Stadium and the Federal Highway, the 3.3-km long course was designed by Dutchman John Hugenholtz who also designed the Zolder Circuit in the Netherlands and the Suzuka Circuit in Japan.

Groundbreaking for the circuit took place in May 1966 with the circuit completed before September 1967. The first race to be held at the Batu Tiga Circuit was the Tunku Abdul Rahman (T.A.R.) Circuit Races, named after the first Prime Minister and was previously held at various temporary street circuits along KL and Petaling Jaya.

Singaporean Rodney Seow took home first place in the race driving a Ford Cosworth-powered Merlyn Mk10, making him the first winner at Batu Tiga.

In 1968, the first Malaysian Grand Prix was held at the circuit and was a Formula Libre race. Formula Libre translates to ‘Free Formula’ which allowed a wide variety of race cars to compete against each other.

That inaugural Grand Prix race was won by Indonesian Hengky Iriawan in a Ford-powered Elfin 600 race car. Throughout the 1970s, the Batu Tiga Circuit was the place to be if you want to check out some horsepower action with touring cars, Formula Libre cars, and motorcycle races held there.

Sadly, tragedy struck in 1977 when a fatal accident happened at the Rothmans Corner, the final turn of the circuit. During the 1977 Malaysian Grand Prix, a race car lost control and crashed into spectators, resulting in the deaths of six children.

Following the incident, the circuit was closed for safety works and improvements. It would be reopened later but this time, it welcomed some truly world-renowned cars.

International endurance

By the late 1970s, the races at Batu Tiga attracted not only regional drivers around Southeast Asia but also some European stars too. Along with their talents, they also brought in proper hardware to compete in.

The Malaysian Grand Prix of the late 70s and 80s saw Group 2 and Group 5 Ford Escorts and Datsun Sunnys racing alongside the more powerful BMW M1 Procars and Zakspeed Ford Capris. It was an eccentric line-up and many of these racecars were often immortalised in posters, usually with some beautiful babe posing next to it.

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Then there were the drivers who were also as legendary as their hardware. From international drivers like Hans-Joachim Stuck and Roberto Ravaglia to local heroes like William Mei, the races were teeming with enough talent to excite any motorsport fan.

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But those were nothing compared to what was to come in 1985 when the circuit hosted the final round of that year’s World Endurance Championship. Dubbed the Selangor 800, the 800 km endurance race saw the Batu Tiga Circuit redesigned with the addition of the Lucky Strike Loop (Turn 11) at the Shell Straight and lengthened to 3.5 km.

Just like the subsequent Formula One races at Sepang, the race was marred by unpredictable weather on race day. The race started off well albeit under a scorching sun but soon, rain started pouring in some parts of the track.

In the end, after 217 laps, Jochen Mass and Jacky Ickx in the #1 Porsche 962 took first place in the only Group C race that was held in Malaysia. Points were not awarded for the teams in this race but it was in a way, proof to the world that the country is ready to host bigger racing competitions.

A sacrificial lamb for Sepang?

Following the Selangor 800, Batu Tiga hosted mostly semi-professional races including a few Group A touring car races and Formula Brabham in 1995. While four-wheeled racing attracted fewer stars in the 1990s, the circuit would host the Superbike World Championship in 1990 and 1991 and the MotoGP from 1991 to 1997.

It was even used as the shooting location for Jackie Chan’s feature-length Mitsubishi ad film, Thunderbolt for some of the racing scenes. Speaking of which, see if you can spot a Proton Saga and a Proton Wira in the video above.

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Despite being beloved by fans of two-wheelers and four-wheels alike, Batu Tiga was facing a dwindling number of attendance and threatened by property developers looking to transform the then 30-year-old circuit into a mall and residential area.

Even back in 1994, 9 years before reality hit the circuit, the Selangor government was already mulling about to have the area developed.

Besides money-grubbing cronies developers, there was another threat to Batu Tiga and it wasn’t the Pasir Gudang circuit. It was the new-fangled Herman Tilke-designed track located near the newly-built airport in Sepang.

Though having more circuits is beneficial for the sport, the more modern Sepang circuit would attract more world-renowned racing competitions like the Japan Super GT, Le Mans, and the biggest one of all, Formula 1.

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Batu Tiga was still well-beloved by local motorsports fans especially those in the Klang Valley area. It’s relatively affordable to enter if you were interested to take a few rounds and it wasn’t placed in the middle of nowhere like Sepang, as modern the track is.

Devastatingly, the fact that Sepang was bringing in “world-class” races meant that the Batu Tiga circuit was simply redundant in the eyes of the Selangor government. So, the government sold it off to a property developer in 2003, and all the memories of Malaysia’s golden era of racing are gone, buried under a gated suburb and an Aeon Mall.

It’s a truly sad fate for what was once the mecca of Malaysian racing. Sepang might bring in the top races but it hasn’t been hosting F1 since 2017 and is a bit too expensive if you’re interested to go for a few laps.

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Meanwhile, the Johor Circuit is closed to the public since 2015 citing “renovations and upgrades”. There may be other plans to build circuits all over the country but these are just ambitious projects with little to no future in realisation.

The Batu Tiga Circuit wasn’t just a hotbed for local racing fans wanting a weekend experience of burning rubber in a closed, controlled environment, it was also a place where talented racers were born.

It was a place to hone one’s skill and was one of the first race circuits in Southeast Asia. Unfortunately, it became underutilised and eventually sold away in the name of “development”.