DONINGTON HISTORIC 2024
Earlybird tickets for the 2024 Donington Historic Festival on 4th and 5th May are now on sale, giving extra savings on discounted advance prices until 31st January. With yet more grids to be announced, the racing line-up for DHF 2024 already promises a superb on-track spectacle, with further excitement coming from the fact that many of the races have the added challenge of pitstops and driver changes, meaning that the outcome is never a certainty.
The Mad Jack race for Pre-War Sports Cars will see behemoth Bentleys wheel-to-wheel with powerful Bugattis, Aston Martins and Frazer-Nashes and giant-killing Morgans in a grid which echoes the very earliest days of racing at Donington Park. Meanwhile, sports car and GT speed and glamour is showcased in a number of races across the Festival weekend. The combined grid for the Royal Automobile Club Woodcote Trophy for pre-56 sports cars and Stirling Moss Trophy for pre-61 sports racers brings some of the most beautiful machines in motorsport history to Donington’s sweeping curves. Expect to see Jaguar D-types and Maserati 250S, Lotus XI and XVs, Lister Jaguar Knobblies, Lola Mk1s, Austin-Healey 100Ms and Cooper T39 Bobtails.
The epic, three-hour Royal Automobile Club Pall Mall Cup features pre-’66 GT and Touring Cars, with categories for pre-'63 GTs and pre-‘61 Sports Cars. With its unique format, including ‘in pit’ refuelling, this has become firmly established as a true challenge in historic racing, as everything from Jaguar E-types, Shelby Daytona Cobras, TVR Griffiths and Granturas battle it out with Lotus Elans, Ginetta G4s and MGBs.
For Touring Car fans, the HRDC Jack Sears Trophy for 1958-1966 tin-tops evokes the formative years of Touring Car racing which evolved into the BTCC. Thundering V8 Falcons, Mustangs and Galaxies are harried by nimble Lotus Cortinas, Alfa GTAs and pesky Mini Coopers, and not to be ruled out are the evocative 1950s racers with powerful Austin Westminsters, racy Austin A35s and A40s plus a myriad of other models such as Riley 1.5s and Standard Tens.
The combined HRDC Dunlop Allstars for pre-’66 Sports, GT & Touring Cars and HRDC Classic Alfa Challenge for 750-116 Alfa Romeos is always entertaining. Embodying the ethos of 1950s/60s club ‘allcomers’ races, the Dunlop Allstars brings a great variety of marques, models and types together in a scratchrace format, while the Classic Alfa Challenge celebrates the illustrious racing heritage of Alfa Romeo, as 1970s GTAm Touring Cars hustle against the younger Alfetta Gp1 GTs and rapid but diminutive AlfaSud Ti racers. Pre-’66 Giulia Supers and GTs make up the historic class in this unique series.
Motor Racing Legends’ Historic Touring Car Trophy and Tony Dron Trophy with Sixties Touring Car Challenge with U2TC encompasses three decades of Touring Cars in one massive grid. Lotus Cortinas, Mini Coopers, Alfa Romeo GTAs, Rover SD1s and Ford Capris share the circuit with flame-spitting Sierra Cosworth RS500s, BMW E36 M3s and Nissan Skylines.
The Superformance Ferrari Club Classic has several classes for road-legal and modified Ferraris up to the era of the 355 Challenge, including 308, 328, 348, 355, 456, 550, Mondial and more. The HRDC Gerry Marshall Trophy for pre-’83 Gp1 and Gp1½ Touring Cars celebrates the intense battles of this era when the likes of Gerry Marshall, Tony Lanfranchi, Barrie Williams and a host of determined racers went head-to-head in bellowing V8 Rovers, 3-litre Capris, Triumph Dolomites, Ford Escorts, 1275GT Minis and rarities such as Opel Commodores.
Earlybird ticket s start at just £23 for a one-day adult (16+) entry, with discounts for teens aged 13-15. Under 13s are free. For further info and to secure those Earlybird tickets, see www.doningtonhistoric.com