HERE'S your chance to wave a flag at Lewis Hamilton as he zips past you in his cool, silvery McLaren.

The Singapore Sports Council has opened registration for volunteer officials for the 2009 Singapore Grand Prix since 8 Dec. The deadline is 23 Jan.

This year, the recruitment drive for volunteer officials at the 2008 SingTel Singapore Grand Prix in September yielded an overwhelming response of more than 2,000 motor racing enthusiasts.

The race for next year is expected to attract a bigger response.

So what does it take to become a race official for a Formula One race?

Singapore Motor Sports Association president Tan Teng Lip spells out the selection criteria when interviewing potential volunteers.

"We had to sieve through the list of volunteers and pick those we thought had the right requirements," he told The New Paper.

"Some experience in the sport as well as the passion for the sport would definitely help and this year we will be more stringent in our selection criteria."

Dream come true

Jovin Tan, 35, recalls his experience working as a general official for the inaugural night race.

His job as flag marshal included ensuring the track was clear of debris and oil slicks and waving the appropriate flag for the appropriate incident during the race to warn the senior officials of the track condition.

"It was a dream come true to see a Formula One race in Singapore and signing up as a volunteer was the closest way for me to get close to the action, and at the same time, be part of history as the pioneer batch of volunteers for the race," said the learning and development executive.

"I missed the deadline to apply for the role as a senior official, so I applied to be a general official as I was hoping to be involved in the GP in some way," he added.

Most of the volunteers are familiar with the drivers and the cars but not with the process of running something as intricate and technical as a F1 race.

But training to be a race official is not as gruelling as one may think, as Tan explained. He said: "The training was fun and the activities and simulated scenarios helped us remember the important points of being a race official.

"If I may use one word to describe it, it was awesome."

The volunteers were taken through different race scenarios re-enacted at Turf City, which also included a pit lane simulation.

"The simulation at Turf City was incredibly exhaustive. We had crash simulations as well as high-speed overtaking and other racing scenarios," said Tan.

"We had to know which flag to raise and what to do for each scenario. It was a positive application to all the theories we had studied."

Trainers were brought in from Australia to impart their expertise and experience to the volunteers.

"The trainers imparted their years of motor sports experience with no reservations. The senior officials were fantastic, too, as they shared their experiences and motivated us throughout the training," said Tan.

At the end of the day, Tan was a relieved man as the race went on without a glitch.

He attributes the success to the whole team working as one.

Tan said: "The volunteers showed their volunteer spirit and even though we were a group of strangers, we had only one aim in mind ? that is to work together to create history and make Singapore proud."

This article was first published in The New Paper on Dec 17, 2008.