With 4 days of frantic activities for us volunteer, Monday seems like a different world. No need to go down at 12pm to sign in, no need to have packet lunch, no mass briefing, no getting icy cold drinks ready, no getting our post clean up and ready, no afternoon sun, no cars zooming past us, and no cars crashing.
Monday begin to feel like a drag, oh how I miss F1 already. How I miss turn 18 and all the people I have worked with at turn 18 & 17.8. I MISS YOU GUYS (AND GALS OF COZ)!
Can’t wait to be back next year at the same turn with the same people. It’s been such a fantastic experience I am thinking of doing it for the next 10 years! No kidding!
At least now I can wait for the rest to upload their photos and slowly enjoy the moment, and I hope we meet up real soon to catch up and share our photos (physically). And maybe, just maybe, we can arrange with Lance to let us do 1 Melbourne GP together! Haha…I know it’s wishful thinking, but at least I can dream right. Maybe a visit to Melbourne to visit Lance and some of the other CAMs guys say 1-2 years down the road? Heehee…more dreaming….
I still can’t believe Ferrari scored zero points. And Alonso won despite starting at 15 position. It’s an unbelievable grand prix and I’m sure many will be talking about it for years to come.
We have made history! Fellow volunteers if you are reading this, YES, we are part of the unique history making grand prix! What a privilege to have! Thank you Singapore GP (or SSC) for choosing me to be a volunteer, it’s an experience I will never forget, and I hope to experience it year after year.
Up next is a double header at Japan and China, and nothing is certain yet. Go go Ferrari! Go go Massa! Go go Kimi!
Finally, the day we all been waiting for. It’s race day!
Today I decided to park near Pahang Road (free parking mah) and go in by gate 1, so it’s 4 different gates for the 4 days
Lots of happening at gate 1, and off course, the merchandise stores are here.
As usual, we have our mass briefing as we prepare ourselves for 4 races today. The Aston Martin Asia Cup (10 laps), the Formula BMW (10 laps), the Porsche Carrera Cup (12 laps), and finally, the F1 night race (61 laps).
Again, no photos during race so you will have to see them via other media. The Aston Martin kick off the afternoon with our Singapore hope, Ringo Chong starting at 4th position. It was an exciting race as the beautiful cars zoom by us. A couple of incidents during the race which required the safety car to come out once. The most noticeable incident was the leader who crash out of the race, leaving Ringo with a chance for podium and he did a fine job to ensure that he finish with just that. 3rd and the Singapore flag was flying on this fantastic day.
Next up was the Formula BMW. This is their 2nd race (1st one was yesterday) and it is pretty much the same result as the winner was just zooming away from the rest of the pack. The Porsche promises just an exciting race and they were wheels flying, bumper coming off, kissing the back of cars, white smoke, oil leaking, all happening in the race. A really competitive race with the eventual winner really well deserving.
We have a bit of a break before the F1 race starts and manage to took some shots.
The drivers’ parade is up next before the actual race begins.
After qualifying, Massa is in pole, followed by Hamilton and Kimi. Alonso, fastest lap in practice 2 & 3, went out of Q2 due to mechanical problem and starts at 15. Alonso make an early stop to change to the harder compound tire and soon after, his teammate Piquet had a bad crashed at around 17.5, which is very near to where we are. Safety car was called out as the car is right at the racing line with nowhere to go. It turns out to be a great call by Alonso to pit early as other cars frantically try to pit, some went in when the pit lane is close and required a 10sec penalty.
Ferrari, in particular Massa, was having a bad day at the pit, with Massa driving off with the fuel hose and a mechanic having to be send to the hospital. Kimi was stuck behind Massa and was delayed. Massa had to wait further up for his mechanics to retrieve the fuel hose and his race all but gone. Thing became worst when he was given a drive through penalty.
Hamilton also have to come from behind after the pit stop and Rosberg was the surprise leader after the safety car period is over but he too incurred a 10 sec stop penalty. So he was putting in fast time to try and come back in a good position. Meanwhile, Alonso is quietly moving up the grid. After everyone has done their pit stop, and Rosberg diving in for his penalty, Alonso is now leading the pack. A truely remarkable come back by the double world champion.
Massa than half crash at turn 18 (yes, it my turn) and than try to drive off, and Sutil, in an effort to avoid crashing into Massa, crashed into our corner and is out of the race.
In the end, Alonso hold his nerve and made history by becoming the winner of the 1st ever Formula 1 night race. As a banner in the crowd opposite us says, ‘Alonso, You’ll Never Walk Alone’. Alonso drove pass and saluted them.
After the award ceremony, it’s track invasion time as fans all come down and walk the track of the champions, champions because every single driver gave their best in an exciting history making race.
After the event is over, it’s party time for the race official as we can finally let loose.
This is it, today is the final practice session for the drivers before they start their qualifying at 10pm. As usual, we do our reporting at 12pm and today I decided to park at Shaw Tower, hoping to save a few bucks, only to realise they raise the car park fees today, I can’t believe it!
I walk through gate 2 today and was surprise to see that we have to walk through construction site and unfinished roads, not the best way to introduce Singapore to our visitors.
As usual, we gather at our mustering area, sign on and have our lunch while we wait for the mass briefing to start. Everyone enjoyed the 1st day of F1 under lights, this including most (almost all) of the drivers. One common complain they have? Bumpy roads, and I guess this is something the organiser have to look into for the next GP.
Everyone is expecting an exciting qualifying today as we wait in anticipation for the day to start.
Here’s a look at our sector marshal and dy sector marshal who has done a great job guiding us.
As it is a extremely hot afternoon, we are told to drink up, and what better than some ice cold drink.
Our fire marshal who help to put out the fire during Mark Webber’s crash at turn 18 receive his award.
And someone even came early for a sun bathing.
Our team at turn 18 getting ready.
As usual, no photo taking for us while on duty and when track is closed (ready for racing) so no pictures of nice F1 cars for you.
Practice 3 went on smoothly with Mark Webber visiting us (twice) at turn 18 again, but this time he went down the excape route and continued safely. So turn 18 is fast becoming a ‘Webber’s corner’ if it continues at this rate. This is where he left his ‘Mark’.
Alonso was fastest again at pratice 3, again coming right behind Hamilton setting the fastest lap immediately after he did, as if to proof something. So qualifying promises to be a spectacular affair with both Renaults right up there with the Ferraris and McLarens.
After Q1, things starts to look good after Kimi came from relegation to fastest lap right before Q1 ends. Alonso did a decent time and Hamilton and Massa continue their battle at the top. During Q2, Alonso’s car came to a standstill at the escape route at turn 18 as he jump in frustration, obviously knowing what he could have done if the car have not fail. He was having a great time till that moment, and his car failure turns out to be a blessing for Hamilton who can’t seems to get going at Q2, qualifying for Q3 at 10th position, only just.
During Q3, it was the the battle between Hamilton and Massa again as they fight it out for pole position, with Kimi threatening with some good timings. In the final minutes, Kimi went on first to set the fastest time before Hamilton did his and Massa left it late to take pole position for the 1st F1 Singapore GP 2008 Night Race.
So it’s advantage Massa in a circuit many drivers predicted few overtaking opportunities as the championship goes down the wire. Now, he just have to keep his cool at the start and make a good start as Hamilton certainly have a ability to jump pass him at the start. As for Kimi, it is still anyone’s guess if he will guning for points for himself or the team. Will he support Massa for the driver’s championshop now that he admit he need a miracle to win? Or will he go for glory himself? Let us sit tight for the 1st F1 Singapore GP 2008 Night Race at 7.57pm tomorrow.
Here is a look at the towing process of Alonso’s car at turn 18.
After months of preparation, it all comes down to this, seeing real race cars zooming pass us. Today promise to be a busy day as we have line up a number of practices and 1 qualifying rounds. Formula BMW, Aston Martin and Porsche all started their practice session in the afternoon. Sorry no photos on them as today is the beginning of serious stuff and alertness is of the utmost, so no phototaking when track is closed (ready for racing). So if you miss it, you can only read about it.
But first up, some pix on the beginning of my day. I parked my car at Suntec today so I went in by gate 7.
It rained heavily in the morning and just when we were expecting a wet afternoon, the rain stopped and the hot afternoon sun dried up the track quickly. Here’s a look at turn 18 at noon.
We went about our mass briefing, and even got time to sing a birthday song to Tim, our clerk of the course (aka the most important person). Michael Smith (below), our Secretary of the Meeting, started off the mass briefing.
And then we are break up into various group for our briefing, and in our case, George is the one briefing us.
George – not of the jungle
Thereafter we are breakup into our sector, as we move to prepare our post for duty.
Me! All suited out
My team mates
Muscleman, or gorilla
Our team mates over at sector 17.8R
More of them, hiding under the safety car board
The session started with Formula BMW making their runs, not big scare except a couple of them spin off at the run off area at our turn. Elsewhere there are little incident as the practice session went according to plan. Fastest lap, 2:25.
Aston Martin are up next and boy do they look good. However, their timing fail to match their look as the fastest lap was at 2:30. Ringo Chong took part in this and was in the top 5 (if I am no wrong, pardon me if I am, I don’t have bionic memory).
The Porsche are the last to come out for practice in the afternoon and right from the start, you can see the sort of competiness lacking in the other 2 practices. They were overtaking and pushing their vehicle to the limit, signs of what is to come when the qualifying and race starts. The practice unfortunately has to be cut short as Ringo Chong, driving his 2nd practice (jumping from the Aston Martin to the Porsche) stalled his vehicle in the dangerous turn 10. So pratice was cut short and we have our first red flag of the afternoon. Not the type of color flag you want to see as it means session is stopped (prematurely).
Formula BMW than came out to do their qualifying and again with 8m 10s to go, the session has to be stopped (which means red flag again) as one run crashed at a dangerous point again. With time running out for the F1 practice to start, the session was cut short.
So at 7pm, we started our F1 1st practice session, the big one we are waiting for, with an almost full house crowd at the Bay grandstand, the F1 cars came zooming pass at 130db. Mark Webber was the first victim of the evening when he came crashing at turn 18 (that’s where I am!!!) and the place he crashed is pretty unsafe and double yellow flags were waved to warn the other driver. A few more scares and crashes end the practice 1 with Hamilton coming out tops with the Ferraris following closely behind.
After the track is open, a worried Mark Webber looks on as the recovery team try to get his car on to the truck.
Worried looking Mark Webber of Red Bull
Recovery team doing a fine job.
The 2nd practice session again saw Hamilton and Massa swopping places at the fastest lap. But at the end of the session, at the final lap, Alonso outdid everyone to finish top, which just proves this is going to be an interesting race. Kimi faded away in the 2nd practice session and he really need to find his form back. So tomorrow’s qualifying prove to be a crucial one and the weather might still play apart.
I leave you with this short video of recovering Mark Webber’s car.
YES! Today is our final shakedown before the big day comes! Tomorrow will be the start of the F1 Singapore 2008 practice session where the likes of Kimi, Massa, Hamilton, Rosberg, Alonso, etc…will be driving through the Marina Bay Street Circuit trying to understand the route and tuning their cars to get the maximum performance out of it.
After months of preparation, the Senior and General Officials are all waiting for tomorrow. So far it has been ‘mock up’ races, tomorrow will be the real stuff. OMG! I don’t think I can sleep tonight, even though I must.
So today we started our session for the final preperation at 5pm. I parked my car at Armenia Street carpark (which I found out is where the police and TP are resting after their duty) and head towards gate 4.
From gate 4, I took a stroll towards the mustering area which is under the grandstand in between turn 18 and turn 19. Just a few pix on my walk to wet your appetite.
Guys from the BMW.
Finally arriving at turn 18, this is where I will be. Since I am at it, I might as well show you a few more photos, this time cars from the support race, I’m just gonna show you 1 car from each race and I will probably upload the rest somewhere so you have have a good look at those wonderful cars. This is just a little teaser.
Porsche
Aston Martin
Formula BMW
OK…enough of fun….now back to serious business…
We gathered at the mustering area for our sign in and mass briefing.
But still found time for a partial group shot.
Then to our work area at turn 18.
We caught the safety car and the medical car doing their rounds.
As requested, here are some pictures of our group buy from the volunteers’ forum.
Comes with a carry case with strap for easy carrying. Chair in folded position, quite easy to keep but have to be dedicate as the case is quite thin and can be tear easily. But once put inside, using the strap to carry makes the chair feels very light.
Chair opened up ready to be sitted! Very sturdy and I like the back rest. Notice a place to put your water bottle, how convenient!
The back view of the chair, what can I say, the printed word “Race Official 2008″ makes this chair priceless
The non-official 2 piece raincoat, come with a nice little zipper bag (right).
The backview of the raincoat, notice the familar strip (as on the overall). A detachable hood (I think) with the front part transparent for visibility. [*** ok, the wordings here are fake, there is no printing of wordings on the raincoat, just my dream ***]
Top and bottom piece of the raincoat. You sure can’t miss us, even in the rain. The front for the top is zipper while the pants is elastic band (on the waist).
It has been a wonderful day yesterday as I attended the F1 Mini-Shakedown at Turf City. This is the 2nd last rehearsal before the actual race begin. When we are there at noon, the mock up circuit has already been done by at the car park where we will be simulating the actual circuit (as far as possible) and standing at our post.
If you don’t already know, I will be at Post 18, which of course is where turn 18 is. Turn 18 is at the floating platform immediately before they (meaning the F1 cars) go under the grandstand, a first (of the many first for the F1 Singapore GP) in an F1 race. As according to our experience sector marshal Lance (25 years of experience!), it is quite an interesting turn and we may see some action there.
Yesterday was all about getting familiar with the procedures and people in your sector, which comprise sector marshal (who is in charge of us at the sector), dy sector marshal (Leslie), flag marshals (that’s me!), track marshals, recovery specialist and observer. A pretty big crowd of people considering that we have a mirror point at 17.8 which means a few more people in our group.
We went through the entire cycle of practice, qualifying and 2 races so that we know the flow of the entire program, complete with real cars (not at racing speed though)! I think those guys are having a hell of a time driving round the mock up circuit. Incidents were simulated to test our reaction. It is a fun (but HOT!) afternoon and we all get a better understanding as questions were ask and discussed during the entire process. With just 3 days to go (yes, we start work on Thursday), I am feeling very excited to be part of history.
As I get my accreditation pass (amidst some chaos), overalls, and handbook, along with the mass buy item (forum people like to mass buy mah :p) like raincoat, chair and forum t-shirt, it is starting to feel more and more real. Now, I just see to see those F1 cars zooming pass me.
Below are some of the pictures of items issued. The last picture is actually some gifts from a fellow marshal who flies all the way from India to be a volunteer! Way to go Tej Veer!
F1 Pass – some parts blurred out to prevent copying.
Working overall – close up
Working overall
Special gift from Tej Veer – India
To give you a better idea of where is turn 18, check out the enlarged section below (click on image for larger image).
On Wed, I brought Denver to the National Dental Centre where he is referred to the Orthodontics by his school’s dental nurse. One of his upper front teeth is growing inwards and might cause a problem. When I book the appointment over the phone, the nurse told me that if braces is require, it will cost S$2K onwards – after subsidies – and I have to pay 50% upfront. So I was quite fearful (of the cost) when I went with him. You see, I never knew braces cost that much.
A quick check by the doctor (or dentist if you prefer to call him, he’s a specialist) reveal that a full braces is not required at this stage as he still have a lot of milk teeth, this will be considered at a much later stage, but he did note that the 4 bottom front teeth, which are ‘adult’ teeth, are not really in a straight line. But will probably look at them again at age 12 onwards. So he is not out of the woods yet.
But the immediate need is to push out the top front tooth. This will require a easy to put in and remove thingie, not sure what it is call. And Denver is suppose to be able to easily put it in and take it out himself. He went for an x-ray just to make sure there isn’t another tooth hiding inside which cause this tooth to be put inwards, and the x-ray shows that there isn’t another tooth. So it means he need to be back to take a mould of his teeth to custom make this braces like thing, and another appointment for the ‘fitting’. And he will have to wear it for at least 6 weeks and hopefully by there it will be ok.
The estimated damage, a much lower S$700 but nevertheless still quite a sum. But if it corrects his tooth properly it will be money well spend.
As you may already know, my family has been down for the entire week. Just when I thought everything is going to be better over the weekend, it didn’t.
On Saturday morning, my wife went to the doc again in hope that she will get the all clear from the doc, but no, the doc says that she has yet to recover and have to go back again. It was mid-autumn festival cum my niece’s birthday celebration on Saturday evening, so I left my wife behind and brought my kids to my mum’s place. Half way through, I started to feel very uncomfortable, so I went back early with my kids.
And guess what, it was Liverpool vs ManU on that night and if you know me, I never miss it but on that night, I was feeling quite awful and missed the entire 1st half. Watching the 2nd half lying on my sofa, I hardly lift a finger (or voice) when Liverpool scored the winning goal, and I immediately know that something is wrong with me. So I begin to drink cups and cups of water. True enough, in the middle of the night, my temperature shot up and thankfully, I have the doc’s medicine on standby. So I quickly down the med and slept on the ‘cold mat’ that I use it for my kids when they have fever.
Praise God that by the morning, my temperature begin to come down steadily. Only then the Liverpool’s first win over ManU for a long long time finally hit home. YES! We won! Without Torres and Gerrard making a cameo appearance
And with Massa managing to cut Hamilton’s lead to 1 point (yes, I still manage to catch the F1 action on Sun night), the week is starting to look like it’s going to end on a brighter note. It could have been worst, as Hamilton’s 1-stop strategy almost give him a chance to come from 15th place on the grid to win the race, but that same strategy backed-fired when the rain refuse to pour and he has to go in and change to a set of intermediate tyres. So he ended behind up Massa, who can’t seems to finish better than the 6th place he started, considering the fact that Sebastien Bourdais who started at 5th but have engine problem at the beginning, it should have finish at least 5th or better, but the Ferraris somehow just can’t seems to work their machine on wet weather condition, unlike the McClaren.
It can’t be engine problem, as the winner (the youngest winner – Vettel) from Toro Rosso uses Ferrari engine too, so it’s either the drivers problem, or the build of the machine. That’s a lot for the Ferrari engineers to think about as the next race in Singapore could possibly be another wet race, looking at how the sky has open up consistantly over the last 1 month.
But the biggest news that ensure this week starts on a bright note is that my wife has been given the all clear from the doc this morning! It usually takes about 10-14 days so I was glad that it is all over in a week. Now I can look forward to sleeping on my bed instead of the sofa, where I was for the pass 1 week.
The entire ‘Home Of Tong’ family was down and out for the last few days. Starting with my younger boy Darien who had fever since last Friday and was kept out of childcare till today. Then on Tuesday came the news that my wife Wanjun contacted HFMD. On Wednesday my older boy Denver had high fever, and on Thursday I was having a bad throat and so went to see the doc together with Denver. Today, finally my 2 boys are able to go to school while I am still been kept at home for precaution.
What a week it has been, but thank God that it is all coming to an end now. My wife hopes she can get the all clear for the doc today, so that she can come out of isolation. Yes, she has been kept in the master bedroom since Tue and my 2 boys have not seen her since. In fact, the sleeping arrangement at night is, Wanjun at master bedroom, Darien at boy’s room, Denver at guest room, and me…of coz…on a sofa at living room…haha…
This is in hope that we will not start spreading to one another and make the situation worst. I pray that the worst is over now and that over the weekend things will get back to normal, without the need of heavy dettol usage.
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