Donington Historic Festival

Donington, Leics, UK 4-6 May

A RAFT OF famous names took to the circuit during the eighth Donington Historic Festival over the Bank Holiday weekend. With 19 races from 14 different grids that spanned almost a century of vehicles, BTCC stars past and present did battle, the likes of Andrew Jordan, Adam Morgan and Sam Tordoff mixing it with Steve Soper and Patrick Watts. John Cleland had a highly productive weekend, securing second place in the Super Touring Car Challenge in his original Vauxhall Vectra.

Andrew Jordan, sharing an Austin A40 with father Mike as has become traditional, stormed to a win in the HRDC Touring Greats group. Steve Soper, meanwhile, piloted the Bastos Rover Vitesse to third with Chris Ward in the huge Historic Touring Car Challenge, and went two better to win the U2TC in a Lotus Cortina.

Other notable results included Jon Minshaw and Phil Keen taking second in a Lister Knobbly in the Stirling Moss Trophy race, while Le Mans veteran Ray Mallock was just pipped by Christopher Drake in the first of the two Formula Junior outings, Drake enjoying a clear win in the second race.

The HRDC Touring Greats threw up some interesting combinations with both motorcycle racer Maria Costello MBE and Travis drummer Neil Primrose in Austin A30/A35s, while musician Chris Rea was in a 1957 Morris Minor panda car.

As well as the racing there was plenty more on-track action, with demos recreating the 1993 European Grand Prix, as well as Group B monsters on a rally stage and historic karts on the Melbourne Loop. Club displays packed the infield, especially Porsche Club GB and Simply Mustangs UK, the latter creating the UK’s biggest-known Mustang gathering with 270 cars. Clockwise from top Rover, Capri and Cossie in the Historic Touring Car Challenge; Minshaw and Keen shared Lister; Maria Costello with Austin; varied Touring Greats grid.