Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone is beaming. The completion of last night's Singapore F-1 broke a bevy of barriers. In a startling upset, former double world champion Fernando Alonso rose from 15th on the starting grid to claim Renault's first win of the season. Singapore’s inaugural race signaled to the world that the city-state– generally considered socially conservative– is a capable host for the hard-partying speed-fest. And Ecclestone showed up the critics who doubted his sanity when he began requesting that some F-1 races take place at night.

Night races are key to Ecclestone's plan to expand F-1 to emerging markets in the Middle East and Asia because they would make live broadcasts available at convenient times for big European and American audiences. High costs have been an obstacle. Singapore, for instance, ponied up about five million Euros to rig up 1,600 lantern-like projectors, which shine at about 3,000 lux (a unit for the intensity of light), or 300 times as strong as regular streetlamps. These were strung along a temporary aluminum truss, held up by 100,000 meters of cabling and 240 steel pylons, that lined the 5-kilometer Marina Bay street circuit.

The success of the Singapore race, however, now gives Ecclestone's push for night races some traction.  After noticing the attention that Singapore's scheduling has attracted, Abu Dhabi is discussing a night race for its first F-1 event next year. Both South Korea and India are building their courses from scratch, which means night-lights could be integrated into blueprints. The Australian city of Melbourne, against which Ecclestone had threatened not to seek a contract renewal unless it raced at night, has also opted for a twilight start-time. Although Malaysia’s Sepang International Circuit chairman Mokhzani Mahathir announced Sunday, the last day of Singapore's F-1, that the Sepang race would not be held at night as promised, he agreed to push the start time back from 3pm to 5pm to coincide with the European morning.

Ecclestone can now turn his sights on other locations. He’s now pressuring Japan to reconsider its timetable for 2009.  China's Shanghai route has never entertained a night race. Come 2010, South Korea promises to be ready. India, which originally aimed to open in 2010 as well, has postponed until 2011. By that time, nine out of 21 races will be Asian. Now that the technology has been shown to be a success, it won't be as much of a gamble for the next customer.