The Singapore Grand Prix

A strange sign at the inaugural Singapore Night Race F1 Grand Prix

Last night saw the first night racing in Grand Prix history and the honour fell to Singapore to host this massive event. Throughout my stay since April there have been signs of preparation, mainly in the Singapore Flyer complex where construction of the pits and 'mega bucks' hospitality suites have been taking shape. And in particular over the last four or five weeks as the street circuit took shape. I decided in May that it was worth a gamble to buy tickets because I figured I would still here and in any case if I wasn't I could easily sell them on.

Singapore itself has been typically low key in its excitement during the build up. Several newspapers and the TV have not been slow to point out that to the average Singaporean this event is hardly the highlight of the week, never mind year. There has been a bit of bewilderment about it and a distinct lack of local hype and even scepticism that the predicted 100,000 additional visitors would bring in any extra trade. Even my own company did not know what the impact would be and we have three restaurants at the Flyer right in the heart of the action! However as usual I was like a little boy at Christmas time and was eagerly anticipating my first ever Grand Prix. There was a time when I thought the 'sport' was actually a pointless pursuit and a waste of time and money as a circus travelled around from country to country driving cars round in circles. What does this say about global carbon footprints? Not very good. But then I gradually changed from the opinionated pontificating youth to a 'middle aged' grumpy bloke and realised that fast cars were actually all right. I bought a brand new Audi TT in a fit of crisis and started to enjoy a freedom of expression. Yes, after years of barking on about the world should do this and the world should do that, I took a long hard look at myself and thought 'Sod it', and started to do things that were actually enjoyable like having sporty cars. It also co-incided with the emergence of Lewis Hamilton at a time when Great Britain needed sporting hero's (see previous entry about this definition). The football teams failed to reach any finals, the cricket team were not dominating the scene like they did with the Ashes series and so on. But Hamilton was new, fresh, young and arrogant. He is also actually quite good and so my interest in his success and in F1 grew.

Last night I set off expecting the crowd and atmosphere to be like Old Trafford when they play Arsenal, but actually it was very different. The organisation of an event like this very much depends on learning lessons from previous events and let's hope the organisers can put up proper signage to direct you to your stand where your expensive seat awaits. Let's hope the staff know their directions to these places, because I asked two policemen, two 'ushers' and a ticket collector where my stand was and only one of them knew. If I have difficulties I can only assume others did. But like everything else on these occasions the event itself is bigger than these little issues and eventually I settled down in the dusky night sky as the illumination from the lights around the 5 kilometre track began to glow and make for an amazing set and back drop. This was spectacular and will put Singapore in the world spot light, literally, and show it off at its glorious and best. Singapore will be very, very proud at the image that is going round the world this weekend.

Singapore's Spirit and looking very much the fantastic city it truly is!

The cars themselves are amazing, much faster than you think they are on TV, and very noisy even with ear plugs. My seat is quite good on the S bend on the Waterfront Esplanade and there is a big TV screen showing action around the track. I still find it difficult to identify who is who as the cars in each team appear identical, but after a while you can tell who is driving and Hamilton has a style so different from the rest. He handles the car with economic style and it is easy to understand how he can pick up vital one hundredths of a second to emerge as the leader. This isn't quite true because Alonso popped up and spoilt the show, but I don't think Hamilton is too worried with another practice session scheduled for tonight. There were two ninety minute practice sessions - that is equivalent to two football matches and it was very enjoyable.

The entertainment off the track was good with plenty of hawker food outlets, bands, discos and the 'Official F1 Merchandise' outlets where even T shirts at 100S$ seem out place when you can buy the 'same' T shirt in China Town for 10S$. Think about it!

Anyway back to the track tonight for the next instalment............

My first attempt at taking a picture of a car travelling at 100mph! Thanks Luv!

My second and to be honest last attempt. I gave up taking any more photographs to save the planet's resources. Ha! Ha!