The Club office has recently been alerted to the death of John Macdonald on Sunday 25 January this year. John was elected as a Full Member in 1973 and became a Life Member in 1993. He was well-known for being the only person to have won all the international races of Macau (Macau Grand Prix, Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix and Macau Guia Race).
With thanks to Angus Lamont, author of “King of Macau – Racing with John Macdonald”, permission has been given to publish the eulogy written by the publisher of Angus’s book, Eli Solomon…
It is with profound sadness that I report the passing of John Macdonald on Sunday 25th January 2026, aged 89, after a prolonged illness. His mind was still as sharp as ever, and he and Angus Lamont had worked on King of Macau till late last year.
John is best remembered for winning the Macau Grand Prix for cars on four occasions (1965, 1972, 1973, 1975), and the only one to have won the Macau GP on both two- and four-wheels (bikes in 1969). Macau wasn’t his only happy hunting ground – he was just as successful racing in Selangor, Penang, Manila, and Singapore, and a MSCHK club events in Hong Kong. His final fling at Grand Prix racing came in May 1977 at the Penang Grand Prix but he continued as a sponsor for Macau that year, providing Vern Schuppan with his Ralt RT1.
Highlights of his career include winning four Macau Grand Prix (a feat never repeated) and he is the only competitor to win Macau’s three major races: the Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix, the Guia and the Macau Grand Prix. He also won three international rallies, two in Hong Kong and one in the Philippines, where he was the Philippine National Champion in 1974. In 1975, driving a Ralt powered by his own Camlex-Ford engine, he won all five Grand Prix in Southeast Asia, a feat that will never be surpassed. In all, he won 18 car Grand Prix and one motorcycle Grand Prix. In the early to mid-1970s, he was by far the most successful racer in the Southeast Asia theatre.
While in Hong Kong, he operated Camlex Garage at 181 Boundary Street, Kowloon (having left Hutchinson as their Group Service Manager for Far East Motors in late 1967). When John retired, he sold the Camlex company in 1981 to Herbert Adamczyk’s German Motors. He and his family left Hong Kong in 1983 and eventually settled in the principality of Andorra, before eventually moving to Mauritius a few years ago.
It took some doing to get John to agree on a book of his racing – he was never one to gloat about his successes in the Lotus 18, Brabham BT36, Brabham BT10, Brabham BT40, Ralt RT1, and countless other racing and rally cars. The final text of King of Macau was presented to him late last year for approval and we are hoping it will be ready for distribution sometime in this quarter, possibly in time for UK deliveries for the Goodwood Members Meeting in April.