Home Of Tong

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).

This entry was posted on Monday, September 22nd, 2008 at 9:48 am and is filed under Formula 1. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.