Truth be told, I wasn’t too interested in this whole F1 thing till I had to cover it for work.

But all that time spent reading up about it and talking to people did help get me excited about the race—Singapore’s first Formula 1 race, and the first night F1 race ever…wahoo!—so I was fairly pumped to attend it today.

And I wish this was the part where I could say “and boy was it everything I thought it’d be”, but…alas, a motor sport fan it did not make me.

I think the first thing that did it in for the event was the weather. As beautiful as the nighttime cityscape was, the evening after a sweltering afternoon was unbelievably humid.

And, like many televised sports, it’s often better on TV because you’ve got commentary and the benefit of rapidly-changing angles. Live, all you’ve got is one sideways view of the track with cars zipping by every now and then. There was commentary over the PA system, but we had earplugs in because of the cars. You win some, you lose some.

But the peripheral entertainment was great. As they say, when the sideshow’s better than the main tent, your circus is on its last wheels. Okay, people don’t say that; I made it up. But you get the idea.

Behind the grandstands, the event organisers laid out a spread of tents selling team merchandise and local hawker food. And they had a local group, the Dim Sum Dollies come and put up a good half hour show we managed to catch.

Consumerism + eating + singlish jokes = honest-to-goodness great Singaporean entertainment.

Anyway, here are some photos of the night, where you’ll be able to see the empty grandstand seats which people abandoned for the side entertainment. And some photos of the pit and track in the day, from a tour I went on last week.

Where the crowd really was: watching the Dim Sum Dollies.