Donington Historic
Six touring car battles dominate proceedings at this Bank Holiday classic race spectacular
Achange of management at one of Britain’s oldest race circuits helped to make this three-day session of historic racing a hit. The latest Donington Historic Festival is the first since Jonathan Palmer’s Motor Sport Vision took over the running of the 75-year-old track, with a new grandstand at the Hollywood corner and a recently-opened restaurant adjacent to the paddock going down well with racegoers.
It was business as usual on track, however, with more than 400 classics taking part in 19 races, encompassing everything from pre-World War Two Bentleys, Rileys and Frazer Nashes in the ‘Mad Jack’ race, to the howl of E-types and XK150s in the Jaguar Classic Challenge. The 60th anniversary of the British Saloon Car Championship – now better known as the British Touring Car Championship – meant that the weekend had a big focus on race-ready saloons too, with six of Donington’s fixtures given over to tintops.
Classic owners taking part in the club displays on the track’s infield also had a chance to take to the track during the lunchtime parades between races, and Donington marked 25 years since Ayrton Senna’s victory in 1993’s European Grand Prix by sending several single-seaters linked to the Brazilian race ace’s career around the 2.5-mile circuit for demonstration runs.
Duncan Wiltshire, managing director of event organiser Historic Promotions, says: ‘With on-track action spanning eight decades of the sport, we had some of the finest period race cars in Europe competing in some of the very best race series.
‘We are grateful to the series organisers, teams, drivers and owners for bringing such a fantastic array of cars to the Donington Historic Festival.’