{"id":491665,"date":"2011-01-01T15:00:04","date_gmt":"2011-01-01T15:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportscardigest.com\/\/?p=37031"},"modified":"2024-01-04T22:34:12","modified_gmt":"2024-01-04T22:34:12","slug":"oriental-surprise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/oriental-surprise\/","title":{"rendered":"Oriental Surprise"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='memberful-global-teaser-content'>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">My story of winning the 1981 Macau Grand Prix actually began two weeks before, when I first raced the Hayashi 220P-Toyota at Suzuka, Japan. I had never seen the car before and really never heard of Hayashi, a wholesale wheel manufacturer. My involvement came through Vern Fotheringham who was their American distributor.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It was wet for practice and right off I realized the car needed some work. As the team was Japanese they couldn\u2019t really understand me when I was trying to get them to change the car, and Yamanashi, the team manager, told me through our interpreter that he didn\u2019t want me to change it because I didn\u2019t know the track yet, I said I didn\u2019t need to know the track to know the car wasn\u2019t working very well, I could learn the track and set the car up at the same time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<style>\n        .memberful-global-teaser-content p:last-child{\n            -webkit-mask-image: linear-gradient(180deg, #000 0%, transparent);\n            mask-image: linear-gradient(180deg, #000 0%, transparent);\n        }\n    <\/style>\n<div class='memberful-global-marketing-content'>\n<div class=\"a07online-global-marketing-content-wrapper\">\n<h2 class=\"a07online-global-marketing-title\">No Subscription? You&#8217;re missing out<\/h2>\n<p class=\"a07online-global-marketing-content\">Any Text Here<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"a07online-global-marketing-prompt\" href=\"https:\/\/supercars.memberful.com\/checkout?plan=86696\">Get Started<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"a07online-global-marketing-signin\">\n<h4 class=\"a07online-global-marketing-signin\">Already a Member? <a href=\"https:\/\/supercars.memberful.com\/account\">Sign in to your account here<\/a>.<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My story of winning the 1981 Macau Grand Prix actually began two weeks before, when I first raced the Hayashi 220P-Toyota at Suzuka, Japan. I had never seen the car before and really never heard of Hayashi, a wholesale wheel manufacturer. My involvement came through Vern Fotheringham who was their American distributor. It was wet for practice and right off I realized the car needed some work. As the team was Japanese they couldn\u2019t really understand me when I was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":172,"featured_media":575003,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[263,11272,261,18207],"tags":[18323,17152,55,12805,11324,11359,13570,12017,11461,17143,17220],"class_list":["post-491665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-car-culture","category-members-only","category-motorsport-racing","category-special-feature","tag-2010s-all","tag-car-culture","tag-japan","tag-dunlop","tag-march","tag-bobby-unser","tag-ray-mallock","tag-teddy-yip","tag-ralt","tag-special-feature","tag-vrr-column-legends-speak"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Oriental Surprise<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Bob Earl discusses the novel circumstances surrounding his unexpected victory in the 1981 Macau Grand Prix.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/oriental-surprise\/\" \/>\n<link rel=\"next\" href=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/oriental-surprise\/2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Oriental Surprise\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bob Earl discusses the novel circumstances surrounding his unexpected victory in the 1981 Macau Grand Prix.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/oriental-surprise\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Supercars.net\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Supercars.net\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/steve.natale1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-01-01T15:00:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-01-04T22:34:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/LS201101-p2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"727\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Steve Natale\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@supercars_net\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@supercars_net\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Steve Natale\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"9 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/oriental-surprise\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/oriental-surprise\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Steve Natale\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/237befa83e8e5937247db55880b8cc49\"},\"headline\":\"Oriental Surprise\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-01-01T15:00:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-01-04T22:34:12+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/oriental-surprise\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1884,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/oriental-surprise\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2011\\\/01\\\/LS201101-p2.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"2010s All\",\"Car Culture\",\"Country (Japan)\",\"Dunlop\",\"March\",\"People (Bobby Unser)\",\"People (Ray Mallock)\",\"People (Teddy Yip)\",\"Ralt\",\"Special Feature\",\"VRR Column (Legends Speak)\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Car Culture\",\"Members Only\",\"Motorsport &amp; 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