Donington Park Sunday 30th September 2012

The final rounds of the British Formula 3 and British GT championships were the centre piece of this 2 day BRSCC organised meeting. A very late addition to the meeting were the final 2 rounds of the FIA GT championship and after what happened on Sunday, certainly an unwelcome addition as far as I was concerned! This is the longest I've left time wise to report on a meeting on the blog this season as I was left somewhat angered and annoyed by the events of the day. First of all the timetable was always going to be very ambitious with the addition of the FIA GT series but why oh why the 12 car field had to have a 30 minute "warm-up" is a mystery. Especially after the 26 car British GT field had just had a 10 minute warm up in the previous session.The last scheduled race was due to finish at 6.40pm and it's pretty dark at this time of year. So what the day didn't need was a big delay, so what did we get - 2 big delays.....
The run off at Redgate corner is now one of the largest in the world...however the run off at Hollywood is one of the shortest in the world and it was at Hollywood that 2 separate accidents occurred in the FIA GT race.The fact that 12 very expensive cars cannot race each other without contact can be discussed another time but a first lap accident involving the lone Ford GT and a BMW Z4 led to a red flag and the tyre wall having to be rebuilt. When the race got going again championship protagonists, the BMW Z4 of Yelmer Buurman and Mercedes SLS of Markus Winkelhock, controversially collided and Buurman's car punched through the unprotected 35 year old concrete barrier. Red flags flew again, Buurman needed medical attention and the barrier had to be repaired.
What all this meant was that the final Ginetta and Formula Ford races were canned and although the 2 hour British GT race ran (which was easily the best race of the day) it led to the final British Formula 3 race starting at 6.00pm. This 40 minute race would decide the title with 3 drivers going for the crown. The race ended in near darkness with Jack Harvey winning the race and the title. Now my eyesight isn't the greatest,  but I was really struggling to see the cars towards the end so I can't think what it must have been like in the cockpit. This was farcical as far I'm concerned and it might be alright for a clubbie to finish in the gloom occasionally but not for the country's premier single seater championship to end like this.
I have to say that my enthusiasm for going almost week in and week out to circuit racing is on the wane. As the years go on the view from the spectator bank is getting ever more distant. The quality and organisation of a lot of meetings are poor with several clubs & circuits living on past glories. This meeting should have been one of the highlights of the season but it turned out to be one of the worst.
Admission was free (thanks to the Donington Supporters Club ticket competition) and A4 programme was £5

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