Donington Park Sunday 30th June 2013

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 the bill that were due to race in March and competitors were given the chance to race on the infrequently used GP circuit configuration. The extra half mile loop isn't the best piece of race circuit in the world though to be honest. The stop-start nature of the 2 hairpins at Melbourne & Goddards tends to break the flow of a race up. This was definitely the case at this meeting with some large gaps appearing (especially at the front) in most races. I can understand clubs trying something different for drivers but the GP circuit lends itself to faster machinery.
There were 11 races in total with double headers for Formula Vee, Sports Specials (nee Kitcars), BMW Compact Cup, Toyota MR2 & the RGB (RoadGoingBike-engined) series. A single 45 minute race for Roadsports/SportsRacing & GT Challenge (yawn....) completed the bill. On paper the highlights of the day would be the Compact Cup and MR2's and they didn't disappoint with some very big grids and in the MR2's some very lively racing. Formula Vee was blighted by red-flags last season and their grid was at it's lowest I have seen for many years (still in the early-20's though!) with racing a little more subdued at the sharp end of the field.
All in all it was a good days motor racing, lovely weather with no tyre blow outs and hopefully it won't be 4 weeks before I venture out again.
Admission was £10 (£5 DPRAC discount) and programme £2


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