RIP William Lyou

[therock]

Sad news:

https://www.straitstimes.com/life/motoring/fast-lane-veteran-singapore-racer-william-lyou-dies-teslas-model-y-suv-starts-delivery-in-august

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Veteran Singapore racer William Lyou, 74, died on July 13 of heart failure.

A number of online tributes have appeared since.

Motor Sports Singapore posted on Facebook: "It is with great sadness that we learnt of the passing of William Lyou, a true Singapore motorsports legend across generations and one of the competitors in the Thomson Road Singapore Grand Prix.

"Motor Sports Singapore General Committee and the members extend our sincere condolences to his family and to those fortunate enough to have known him. William will be sorely missed."

Mr Lyou suffered a heart attack in 2018. Despite that, he remained actively engaged in and was a willing commentator on all things automotive.

He is survived by his wife and two grown-up children, a daughter and a son.

Among the races he won was the 1973 Singapore Grand Prix, where he emerged third.

 

He used to sell Nissans, and I even took a drive with him. Nice man... RIP

 

https://topgear.com.sg/features/remembering-the-late-william-lyou-20th-july-1948-13th-july-2022-by-leslie-chang

 

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"I was introduced to William in 1982 when I wanted to modify my Suzuki 550 (yes, it is a car). He asked me the purpose of the modification and I told him that I hoped to improve my performance for the next race.

He then gave this advice to me, “Hey small boy, the trick is to modify the driver not the car.”

William is known for speaking slowly, but thinking (and driving!) very quickly. His ability to observe and react to any given situations faster than others made him a natural leader. He also had the ability to think outside the box which often caught his peers by surprise.

I am certain William was aware of our spying motives, for we also spent countless hours trying to emulate whatever we had observed. Thankfully, he was unfazed and we remained very good friends.

By 1984, I was able to compete on par with William. In fact, we became the top contenders for car park races till the early 90’s.

So before the start of each event, William would call me by my Chinese name and we would perform the gentleman’s handshake, “Yeow, wish you a good race. If you don’t win, I will.”"

 

 

 

 

[serenade]

https://www.nas.gov.sg/archivesonline/photographs/record-details/a2c02b45-1162-11e3-83d5-0050568939ad

Her is William Lyou in a 1971 pic. His red mini is shown battling the grey Newton Enterprises mini of Anne Wong. Both cars were locally built.

[ER-3682]

RIP.🤧