Watching a video of Steve Slater’s interview on Channel News Asia’s website was enough to rekindle my dormant excitement over the first F1 race in Singapore. A sport I appreciate. A night race. In my country.

Races on the F1 calendar usually take place at 8 am Eastern Time every other Sunday morning in the US. Over here, my F1 season is about checking the F1 website for qualifying results on Saturdays, making predictions of the race results on Facebook’s Formula 1 Picks, catching the race on TV on Sunday if I wake up early enough, or stare at the F1 website’s live timing screen and watch the timings refresh if I wake up early enough but none American TV station is showing the race ‘live’. Lately, my F1 season has also overlapped with my running season. At 8 on Sunday mornings, I have been running, probably in no man’s land and though I have been waking up very early, there was no way I could have watched the races.

With this kind of exposure during the F1 season, it is hard to sense the excitement and buzz around the races.

As yesterday’s race in Monza came to an end, the next race in Singapore is only 2 weeks away. 2 weeks away. A night race. In my country.

How should I put excitement in words? I am very eager to see a race hosted in my country. In Singapore, on the same roads along which I used to jog regularly – most part of the track had been part my my jogging route. In the part of the city, past the familiar landmarks where I used to hang out in evenings and weekends. Imagine, Kimi Raikonnen, in his Ferrari, flying over the Esplanade Bridge.

When we watch Monaco, we recognise the tunnel, the marina and Lowes hairpin, overlooked by some building where its occupants would simply lean over the window and watch the cars meander past. We remember names of landmarks, such as the casino and the swimming pool, but never having been there before, these are simply names that cannot be associated with any image and memory in my mind.

In Singapore, I will know where Kimi is as he speeds past City Hall and the Padang because I will not miss the dome of the old Supreme Court and the UFO-like structure that crowns the new one. I know he passes Victoria Concert Hall if I see the clock tower, which I knew, since I was a kid, as the clock that gives the most accurate time in the country. As he makes the turn from Esplanade Drive onto Raffles Avenue, I will recognise the iconic “Durian” and I can boast to other non-local viewers that I used to jog here almost everyday when construction workers were still getting it built to house what is called the Esplanade Theatres on the Bay today.

Esplanade Bridge (Esplanade Drive runs over it) leading to the “Durian” on the right. The creature monument is the Merlion and the tall building in the background is Swissotel the Stamford.

The “Durian”, with its neighbouring hotels along Raffles Avenue.

There is a certain sense of pride to it – the sense of “I come from this nice country and I would like to show you around”. Now, having most of my pictures of the city taken at night, I have to say that Singapore has a lovely cityscape when the sky gets dark and lights come on in the city. I am hoping the night race will bring out this face of hers to viewers elsewhere in the world.

I do not want to admit it, but there is a lingering sense of regret that I will not be in town to witness my home race at night.