Even if Formula One racing never makes it here for one reason or another, at least one Singaporean is going to live the dream.

Alvin Koh, 25, will climb into the cockpit of a bona fide F1 car and race it around a real track in Spain on a yet-to-be-determined date.

The operations officer of American Express clocked a personal best time of 1:13:864 to win the Singapore leg of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) Grand Prix Challenge.

Riding on the F1 frenzy that has gripped the nation, the week-long RBS Grand Prix Challenge was held in Singapore recently.

Competitors in the Challenge "raced" in a full-scale similated car with 3 LCD monitors built around it, and went all out to to achieve the best possible lap time.

The contestants with the top three lap times slugged it out again yesterday in a "private race" at the National Museum in the F1 simulator in the glare of flashing cameras and jostling journalists. Alvin Koh emerged the winner.

Mr Alan Goodyear, RBS' General Manager & Head of Global Banking and Markets, S.E. Asia, said: "It's clear there is a big appetite for F1 racing in Singapore. Through our sponsorship of the AT&T Williams F1 Team, we're proud to have been able to bring to life the pressure, excitement, and thrill of F1 racing to Singapore.

Racing is not completely new Alvin Koh, as he regularly competes in the scaled-down version of motor racing - Radio Control (RC) racing. He already has two Asian titles under his belt in his six years of racing miniatures. His regular, full-sized ride is his dad's Toyota Vios .

Coming in a close second at 1:15:465 is Alvin Ng, 33, a legal counsel. Visibly disappointed, he confessed to having made a fundamental alignment error on a straight which cost him valuable seconds. He currently drives a Mazda 6 which has seen action on race tracks in Malaysia.

AT&T Williams drivers, Alex Wurz and Narain Karthikeyan took a day off preparing for this weekend's race at Sepang to try out the simulator.

Both seemed mildly bemused at all the attention being focused on the simulator, but could only manage lap times of 1:17:409 (Wurz) and 1:21:635 (Karthikeyan).

The RBS Grand Prix challenge will now travel to London, Tokyo and Hong Kong.