Donington Classic Festival

Simon Crafar will be a special guest at the fifth running of the Donington Classic Festival, which takes place over the weekend of August 4-6 and celebrates the 40th anniversary of the circuit reopening in 1977. Simon has had soft spot for Donington ever since winning the 500cc Grand Prix there back in 1998. Riders who were at the first meeting back in 1977 are being invited to join the celebrations, and first to get in touch was Stan Woods, who won the 500cc race at the first meeting. Stan has offered to present the beautiful trophy he won in 1977 to the winner of this year’s 500 race and he will be out on track himself in the parades. The feature race and highlight of the weekend will be the Wheatcroft Trophy race, which is sponsored by Classic Racer, and is open to any Crmc-registered machine. Making the trip from Germany to race at the Donington Classic Festival are around seven German enthusiasts who have rarely seen Simson AWO 425 race machines from the 1950s. The group have a mixture of 250cc and 350cc variants, all single cylinder shaft drive machines including one with a full dustbin fairing. Donington Park has secured the 1976 and 1977 Barry Sheene Championship winning bikes to attend the Festival in August.