The Motor Racing Spectator

The second day of a 2 day Classic Sports Car Club meeting at Donington was the latest outing for The Spectator. 8 races were scheduled but with the amalgamation of Special Saloons &  HVRA V8 series races the card had 7 races in the end. Swinging 60's Group 1 & Group 2,Future Classics, Jaguars, Sports/Saloon Challenge and a Lotus Elan 50th anniversary race completed the menu. Autumnal is how I'd describe the weather and as we head towards late September and October, what Summer we had is now a distant memory. It was cool and blustery all day and it's time to dig the bobble hat and gloves out of the drawer for the rest of the season!  This was a curate's egg of a day where some of the action was fantastic and some of it was poor. The first 2 sessions of qualifying in the morning (Swinging 60's Groups 1&2 + Future Classics) were probably the most entertaining sessions I've seen all year with lots of cars on track driven over enthusiastically in the m...

Silverstone was the venue for The Spectator's latest meeting as I ventured to the Northamptonshire/Buckinghamshire border for the second day of a 2 day British Formula 3 and British GT meeting organised by the BRSCC. Glorious sunny weather at last in the UK made for a pleasant day watching even if the traditional Silverstone wind did cool it down a bit later in the day. 9 races in total with the centre piece of the day being a 3 hour race for the British GT championship. Double headers for British Formula 3, UK Formula Ford, Ginetta G5 and single races for the Volkswagen Cup and bizarrely the JK Asia Racing Series,which are rebranded Formula BMW cars. Yes we are living in strange times motor sport wise with an Asian based series having 3 rounds in Europe and the fact that there were only 8 cars on track for a 10 lap race on the 3.6 mile GP circuit begs the question-why? Indeed there were only 11 Formula Fords and 15 Formula 3 cars aswell and after seeing the same package at Rocki...

After a 5 week gap it was back to Donington for the second visit of the season by the 750MC. The club are now based  in offices at the circuit and are looking at closer ties with Donington in future years. The 2 day meeting was a self-styled "Summer" festival and the 750MC hierarchy must very good meteorologists as their early September meeting turned out to be far more Summery than their meeting in late June! The Spectator only ventured out on the Sunday which turned out to be a warm and pleasant day after early cloud. 14 races were run on the day after 4 qualifying sessions and the last race finished at 6.15pm so, in Donington terms, an early finish.....All of the clubs championships were on track and the only ones I missed on the Saturday were SAXMAX,BMW Compact Cup and Toyota MR2 Super GT. I have to say it was a thoroughly enjoyable days racing with the only poor races being the pair of Formula 4 single-seater races which had thin grids and unreliabilty. Highlight ...