The Motor Racing Spectator

Many apologies dear reader for the lack of updates of late. A combination of a severe case of man flu and the fact that I was without an internet connection for nearly 3 weeks means that the blog has laid dormant for this time. The Spectator hadn't ventured outside of Leicestershire for his motor racing thrills since my last visit to Silverstone on June 2nd, so 5 months later, and for only the 4th time this season it was an early morning trip down the M1 to "The Home of British Motor Racing". The Walter Hayes Trophy is one of my favourite meetings of the year as Formula Ford drivers come from all over the globe to converge on the Silverstone National circuit. The 2012 final that was won in spectacular fashion by Tristan Nunez was my race of the year last year and the simple fact is that the good old 1600cc Kent engined F.Ford still provides some of the best racing around. Sadly I couldn't make it on the Saturday when 6 heats were held along with HSCC Open and Clos...

Having taken as much medication as possible following the events of October 6th it was with some trepidation that I ventured trackside again! It was BRSCC Championship Finals weekend at Donington that enticed The Spectator back out on the Sunday of a 2 day meeting. 14 races were scheduled for Sunday with the majority of the BRSCC's championships racing both days. Several other BRSCC championships were having their Finals Weekend on the Silverstone International circuit this weekend so a difficult decision for Midlands based spectators to chose which meeting to go to. Even despite the fact that a Caterham Formula One car was being demonstrated at Silverstone and that the meeting there was free to get in to, The Spectator chose Donington simply as it's nearer! A damp track greeted competitors for 3 qualifying sessions in the morning before racing started in earnest and the circuit gradually dried as the day progressed until about 3.00pm when the heavens opened and led to a bri...

The fact that it has taken me over 2 weeks to post these words indicates that this particular meeting made The Spectator's well-monitored blood pressure boil over and I think I've just about calmed down now...... The British GT championship final round was the centre piece for this BRSCC organised 2 day meeting held on the 2.5 mile GP circuit. Following the demise of a normal British F3 championship in 2013 the support races on the GT package have been a little on the thin side,especially after an attempt to run a series for Duratec Formula Fords collapsed after only 1 round. Bolstering the timetable at Donington were 2 races for the Mazda MX5 Autumn Challenge and, following a successful race at the Superstars meeting, a hastily arranged HRDC Allstars race. As both these raced on the Saturday only however, Sunday meant only 6 races on the schedule with 3 for the Ginetta GT5 Challenge, 2 for the Volkswagen Cup and the 2 Hour British GT race. 6 races with a scheduled finish o...

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...

After a brief taste of Winter weather at Donington the previous week it was back to glorious blue skies for the visit of the 750MC this weekend. The 750MC fixture in June was on the GP circuit so it was back to the (better for club racing) National circuit layout for this 2 day meeting. I went on the Sunday only so missed out on 750 Trophy (shame...)Monoposto's and Roadsports, but other than that all of the clubs many championships were in action on the Sunday with 14 races in total. Qualifying for the BMW Compact Cup started bright and early at 9.05am but David Drinkwater in the No.67 car probably wished he hadn't bothered making the long journey from Farnborough. He trundled slowly down through the Craner Curves and parked up near the old Spark Plug commentary point without completing a full lap. His mood cannot have been good but a few minutes later it would have dipped slightly more as another BMW Compact got on the grass on the exit of the Old Hairpin and headed straigh...

The Spectator's latest meeting was another visit to Donington with the BRSCC in charge for 14 races for the 2nd day of a 2 day meeting. Qualifying and 3 races took place on the Sunday so I missed out on Sports 2000 (dare one say phew...) and the Time Attack series. The day promised much on paper as the ubiquitous Mazda MX5 Mk1 provided 4 races along with 6 races for Ford Fiestas of various descriptions. Throw in a double header for the Open Sportscar Championship and a couple of Alfa Romeo races too and the day was complete. Following one of the warmest summers for a very long time, Britain has managed to forego the season known as Autumn and on Sunday plunged headlong into Winter. The forecast had been apocalyptic on Friday but thankfully seemed a little better by the time Sunday morning arrived. A very cold wind blew all day which led to the occasional shower and at 5.00pm it was looking like we might have got away with it. Then a VERY dark cloud appeared on the horizon and wi...

The latest meeting at Donington saw The Spectator visit both days for a rare International meeting at the circuit. The Italian based Superstars series made their 3rd appearance in the UK along with Auto GP and GT Sprint. Domestic support came in the form of Scottish Legends, the Northern based CNC Heads Sports/Saloons championship and HRDC Allstars. International meetings are a chance to see cars and drivers that you wouldn't normally see and the V8 engined Superstars are certainly a spectacle. Sadly there were only 15 cars entered for the trip to Donington but at least there was quality on the driver front with ex Grand Prix drivers Vitantonio Liuzzi, Gianni Morbidelli & Domenico Schiatterella entered along with BTCC frontrunner Colin Tukington making a one-off appearance in a BMW M3. Italian Luigi Ferrara was visibly the most exciting driver through the Craner Curves during Saturday qualifying and his Mercedes took pole position for the first of Sundays races which...

Another Sunday and another visit to Donington, this time for the visit of the Classic Sports Car Club to the East Midlands. Celebrating their 10th anniversary of existence this season the club caters for the racer on a budget. The main core of the CSCC's series run to a 40 minute race which enables costs to be shared between 2 drivers (if required). Sunday saw 9 races along with 4 qualifying sessions in the morning. The days racing kicked off early with the first of 2 races for the German based Triumph Competition & British GT series. I had never seen this series race before and was very impressed with not only the size of the grid but also the quality of the racing. Funnily enough both races were won by the only 2 British interlopers in the field. The first race was won by Paul Conway's Morgan and the second by Brian White's Triumph TR4. A large grid of large cars can only mean Jags! The lumbering beasts put on a good race and some entertaining scraps, especially i...

Marshals standing away from their posts. Barriers in place to stop spectators standing where they shouldn't. The distinct smell of diesel in the air.....It can only mean one thing- Truck Racing! The Spectator's first trip to Donington in 5 weeks saw the British Truck racing championship highlight a 13 race schedule which also included Pickups, Legends, Caterham Graduates & Saxmax. Saturday had seen qualifying and 8 races take place and it was good to see a healthy crowd in attendance on the Sunday. It's not everyday you see truck racing and the sheer novelty factor certainly helped draw a crowd with a lot of families and barbecues camped out on the grass banking. I voted last year's European Truck meeting at Donington as my meeting of the year last year, simply as it was a great spectacle. The domestic series didn't quite reach the same heights this year though, but despite there being 12 rigs they were still entertaining. Indeed there was quite a bit of con...

The first weekend of August and already a circuit's last car meeting of the season....Autumn must be around the corner. Yes the last of Mallory's 5 dedicated car meetings of 2013 saw The Spectator visit the second day of what was billed as "The AUTOGLYM Classic Festival". Festival is the word here, as not only was the entire days racing going out live to the watching world on an internet live stream, but there was also a very large crowd in attendance which is a rarity for a club meeting these days. Apparently there was a GroupOn discount offer where tickets were just £6. I'm not an avid on-line bargain hunter so I was completely unaware that such an offer was happening, I duly paid £15 on the gate.....The large crowd reminded me of the Renault Free days at Donington & Silverstone in the recent past where, if something is free/cheap, hordes of people arrive at 11.00am, wander about for a bit dressed in entirely the wrong clothing, drink lots of alcohol,eat l...

A rare opportunity these days to witness a car meeting at Mallory Park saw The Spectator head to deepest Leicestershire last Sunday. The Vintage Sports Car Club were the organiser's with 11 short-sharp races on the card. After 2 weeks of glorious weather it was a bit of a shock to have a little drizzle during the morning's practice sessions, but thankfully it stayed dry for the rest of the day, albeit overcast. Watching at the exit of Gerards during practice (with a greasy surface) I couldn't help marvel at how most drivers were manhandling, there is no better word for it, their cars. Total commitment was on show by virtually all drivers during the day. The sight of Tony Lees sitting atop his Vauxhall Viper Special, so high up his head in the mist....,hurtling into Gerards, will linger long in the memory! The headline race of the day was for the Bob Gerard Memorial Trophy catering for Pre '61 racing cars and was won by William Nuthall's 1953 Cooper-Bristol with ...

After walking around Donington ten days previously, it was time to head back behind the barriers for a very busy weekend's racing. The BRSCC Midlands centre were in charge for what was billed as the "Caterham Festival". As Caterham's provided 11 out of the 19 races over the weekend, I can see why! Academy, Roadsports, Tracksports, Supersports & Superlight races catered for the different versions of the marque. Variety was provided by the Mazda MX5 Supercup, Northern Formula Ford 1600 and Sports 2000. In all 257 cars were entered for all the races.... For many years now the Caterham (in all it's forms) has been one of the stalwarts of the UK racing scene. Indeed, if you own a Caterham, you could probably race one every weekend as not only is there the package racing this particular weekend but there is the Graduate group of races with BARC and the Classic Sports Car Club run a massively popular Magnificent Sevens series too. Add in various regional Sports/Sa...

Not the usual post on the blog but I ventured to Donington on Thursday 4th July for the first of their "Run in the Park" evenings. This is a brilliant idea which allows runners and walkers ( I walked by the way...) to use the circuit to exercise on. Cyclists are catered for with their own separate evenings. The track was open from 5.30pm to 8.00pm and I managed a lap of the GP circuit and 2 laps of the National circuit,one clockwise and one anti-clockwise.  For the first 10 minutes or so I kept glancing behind me expecting a car to loom into view but after getting my head around the fact that it was two legged horsepower only, I settled into a nice rhythm and managed to clip every apex on all my laps! The steady climb from the Old Hairpin up to Coppice certainly made the heart beat faster and in reverse the Craner Curves are very steep.  I really enjoyed the evening and it was nice to walk away from the usual noise of town and village traffic. Donington can only be appla...

The Spectator is back! Apologies to the loyal readers (or reader) of the blog for the lack of updates in June. I usually go through a mid-season lull but it happened a bit earlier this year. If the meeting at Mallory Park on June 23rd had contained more than 5 races I would have gone but it didn't. If it wasn't for the coldest March in the UK for 50 years, it would have been another week without a meeting  as the 750MC fixture that should have taken place on March 23rd was postponed due to the small inconvenience of 3 feet of snow on the circuit. It was swiftly rescheduled for June 30th and thankfully it was a warm, humid day this time around. June 30th was the date for another minor clubbie taking place in the East Midlands at Silverstone but thankfully there were plenty of marshals at Donington who weren't prepared to be showered in exploding tyres....Crowd levels at Donington were slightly lower to that of Silverstone however! The 750MC had kept the same series on t...

After a 7pm finish at Donington the night before, it was up at the crack of dawn for a trip to Silverstone and a meeting that I'd been looking forward to all year. On the equivalent Sunday a year ago the Blancpain Endurance Series provided a superb 3 hour race in wet weather. Thankfully it was dry and sunny this year (if a little cool in the wind) and a superb 57 cars took the start at 2.50pm. The British GT series started 48 cars last weekend on the same circuit so there appear to be no cracks in the GT3 class at the present time. 9 different manufacturers are represented in the Blancpain series and after qualifying on Sunday morning it was the "works" Aston Martin Vantage of Darren Turner/Stefan Mucke/Frederic Makowiecki who took pole and went on to win the 3 hour race with a fairly comfortable 20 second margin over the 2nd place Audi R8 of Stephane Ortelli/Rene Rast/Laurens Vanthoor. The RJN Nissan led the race early on, having qualified 2nd, but faded as the race w...

It was back to The Spectator's spritual home of Donington for the first time in a month for an Aston Martin Owners Club 1 day meeting. AMOC have re-organised their portfolio of championships in recent years and have formed an alliance with MotorSportVisionRacing to "run" their meetings. It's fair to say that they were in serious danger of folding as a race meeting organiser, as for several years entries waned considerably. Probably a victim of the burgeoning historic scene, they have reduced their own series and at Donington the club ran Intermarque, 50's Sports Cars, Equipe GTS and the grandly titled AMR GT4 Challenge of Great Britain (more of which anon.....). The Historic Racing Drivers Club briefly dabbled in running their own meetings last year but in a bid to cut costs have aligned with AMOC and provided a big entry of Touring Greats. The 7 races were boosted by a double-header for the Porsche Club championship. The dawning of Summer usually means slate g...

Having just about recovered from a sleepless weekend in a tent at Brands Hatch, it was back to Mallory Park for the second of only 5 car meetings at the circuit in 2013. This was another Motors TV raceday with the broadcaster showing all 12 races live in the afternoon. BARC were the organisers in charge and an eclectic mixture of series filled the card. Legends (scaled down replicas of 50's American cars fitted with Yamaha motorcycle engines) had 3 races with double-headers for Classic Formula Ford 1600, MG Metros and Sports/Saloons. There were single races for the Midget & Sprite Challenge, Jaguar Saloon & GT championship and somewhat bizarrely a 30 minute, 2 driver Citroen 2CV race!  Definite highlights of the days racing were Legends and Classic Formula Ford. Mallory Park is the spiritual home for Legends and they certainly entertained in all 3 races. For many years they supported the late lamented Eurocar package on the Mallory mile oval but the addition of the tig...

Many thanks to Steve Bounds for these great photos from the DTM meeting at Brands Hatch. Winner:Mike Rockenfeller - AUDI 2nd:Bruno Spengler - BMW 3rd (on the road...)Gary Paffett - MERCEDES Adrien Tambay - AUDI Marco Wittmann - BMW Joey Hand - BMW

"And now for something completely different". My last visit to Brands Hatch had been in 2008 and the last time I'd seen the DTM was in 2007 so a long overdue visit to the Garden of England (Kent by the way...) was in order. The DTM or German Touring Cars is a window for the mighty German car manufacturers to showcase their wares across Germany and, on occasion, other European countries. The DTM have been coming to Brands Hatch every year since 2006 and                                                      provide a grid of 22 cars between them. The cars are both aurally and visually spectacular with 4-litre V8 engines and were well worth the trip. I was a little disappointed to realise after I had booked my tickets that due to cost cutting measures the DTM don't practice on Fridays this season so it was Saturday morning when the...

After the sadness of the previous evening at Donington it was off to the glamorous town of Corby and my first visit of the season to Rockingham. Just like Marmite, you either love it or hate it but there is no denying that "Europe's Fastest Circuit" is a bit different to what you're used to as a spectator. I took the train to Corby on a gloriously sunny Bank Holiday morning, arriving at 9.10 and walked to the track. The northern ring road of Corby isn't the most salubrious of places and there surely can't be a stranger location of a circuit anywhere in the UK! The gigantic main grandstand loomed into view and 40 minutes after leaving the station I arrived (sweating profusely..) at the ticket booth. The second round of the British GT championship was the headline event with a 2 hour race but the day only featured 4 other races, 2 each for the Volkswagen Cup and Ginetta GT5 Challenge. This package last year also featured Formula 3 and Formula Ford which have...