Donington Sat/Sun July 14/15 2012

6 Hours of Donington: 13 cars......
Perhaps a little harsh to publish a photo of grass growing but after a season of witnessing some very good racing at some very good meetings there had to be a weekend when my enthusiasm/sanity were tested to the full! All year I'd known that the newly conceived European Le Mans Series was on shaky ground as their first round at Paul Ricard attracted a 20 car field and the 2nd round at Zolder was cancelled altogether. However a couple of weeks ago the entry list stood at 21 for Donington so I thought what the hell, go for the weekend and as a big fan of Le Mans Prototype cars I reckoned it would be OK. As is usually the case when I buy tickets in advance I regret being so well organised as the entry started to dwindle from 21 to 18 to 15 and finally to 13 by the weekend. Donington showed no signs of cancelling the event, there was no sign of reducing the length and no sign of ticket price reduction so it was with a heavy heart I attended both days.
On Saturday there were 4 races, 2 of which for the Caterham Academy plus the Alan Mann Trophy for Pre'66 saloons and a 90 minutes SPEED Euroseries race for prototypes. On Sunday there was a 60 minute race for the SPEED series and the 6 Hour race started at 11.55. My mood wasn't helped by the purchase for £5 of a programme that was a spectacular waste of paper. A4 in size with some very nice glossy photos it sadly failed to have anything in the way of correct detail about what was on track!! No SPEED entry list, lists of Caterham drivers but with no numbers and ELMS & Pre'66 saloons entries that required many alterations.
As for the main event all I will say is that it was competitive at the front with 3 cars on the lead lap at the finish and thanks to a big screen TV at Hollywood at least you could follow what was going on. I love motor racing but I find it hard to justify the expense that must have been borne at Donington for the sake of a 6 hour,13 car race.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Donington Park Sunday 29th September 2013

Image
Another Sunday, another visit to Donington....This time for a Motor Sport Vision Racing organised meeting where the headline event was the finale of the BRDC Formula 4 championship. 12 races on the bill included 3 for the Mini Challenge, 2 each for Production BMW's, F3 Cup and Radical SR3 Challenge along with the aforementioned Formula 4 plus a 1 hour Lotus Cup UK race. The BRDC F4 championship has been one of the season's highlights. Pitched against the newly winged Formula Ford at the start of the year for drivers wanting to start their climb on the single-seater ladder, the series can quite easily claim to have "won" the battle with grids hovering around the 20 mark for most of the year. 18 cars entered Donington as those drivers who'd got no say in the title race left for pastures new or ran out of money. To have 6 drivers in with a mathematical shout at winning the championship going into the final 3 races says much for the competitiveness of the series...
Read more

Donington Park Sat/Sun May 19/20 2012

Image
Back to Donington this weekend for the visit of "Superstars". No, not the famous BBC show of the 70's and 80's where top sportsmen of the day competed against each other in squat thrusts and Kevin Keegan falling off his bicycle... These Superstars are an Italian based championship for mighty V8 powered saloons, 18 of which were present. They made an impressive spectacle on a dry track as their first session on a damp Saturday morning made the cars look the unwieldy beasts they are. A star studded entry list with former British Grand Prix driver Johnny Herbert driving a Maserati Quattroporte, plus former GP drivers Gianni Morbidelli (Audi) & Vitantonio Liuzzi (Mercedes). Indeed Morbidelli was the star of the weekend as he won both races very easily in an Audi RS5 that was the class of the field. Fellow Audi driver, Johan Kristoffersson, (who started from the back in the first race due to competing in the Scandinavian Touring Car Champinship on Saturday) finished 2n...
Read more

Silverstone Saturday 5th September 2015

Image
After a 3 week "Summer" break, or should that be a 3 week Autumn/Winter break given the less than Summery August weather, The Spectator ventured to Silverstone for the first day of the World Series by Renault meeting. Starting at Donington in the mid 00's and then moving to Silverstone in 2008 the "Renault Weekend" was always a highlight in the calendar. Free tickets were given away in their thousands and huge crowds turned up every year. Featuring the core Renault championships of Formula Renault 3.5, Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup and a Megane based saloon series the UK saw a round each year until 2011. After a 3 year hiatus the Renault weekend was back . No free tickets this time around though but a very reasonable £10 on the gate each day and a weekend ticket for £12 if bought in advance. The enormous crowds of yesteryear were not in evidence on Saturday and a crowd figure of 20,000 was quoted for the weekend which would appear to be that 19,500 turned up o...
Read more