Donington Park Sunday 28th September 2014

For the 3rd Sunday running, The Spectator found himself at Donington not for Cars this time but for Bikes. I don't watch too much bike racing but it's good to see something a little different now and again. I've always been fascinated by how different the two branches of circuit racing are. I like the fact that watching cars at a certain corner for overtaking and incident doesn't mean that it replicates for bikes and vice versa. Organisation is very different too as bike racing tends to have more races in a day as this day proved with 19 races in all. Thundersport GB have established themselves as the premier club racing organisers in the UK today as proved with a mammoth 35 races over the weekend at Donington. TGB are very proactive organisers too as every series they run was fully sponsored and, with the odd exception, had a capacity grid. One clever idea that they have implemented in recent years is trying to get a racing calendar where there is a race roughly every 4 weeks. This means that people who get paid monthly can plan their budgets better. A free A4 size programme is produced too with some interesting articles and colourful layout. This being Donington though, they were to be found in a cardboard box on the floor by the ticket office when I arrived on Sunday morning, the staff having no clue what they were!
After 5 Warm Up sessions in the morning which in themselves were very entertaining, the 9 TGB championships each had a race before and after the lunch break. An additional 8 lap race was held for six Electric bikes that were due to race within the Supertwins class but were given their own race on the day. I'm not sure what to make of the advent of Electric racing, both in cars and bikes. Obviously alternative energy sources have to be found but the lack of spectacle and noise from these machines has to be addressed if spectators are being charged (no pun intended...) to watch them.
Without doubt the best racing was provided by the slowest bikes on the card which were the Honda CB500's in the Thundersport 500 class. Huge grids and some very close battles all the way through the field led to two entertaining races. 600 and 1000cc bikes provided the bulk of the racing along with races for Aprilia's of the Superteen and 450GP variety. I really enjoyed the days racing and it's good to report only 2 red flags in the 19 races.
Admission was the usual £10 with £5 DPRAC discount and, as we head towards Winter, the weather appears to be getting warmer as this was another gloriously sunny September day. Indeed I had to look for shelter at lunchtime away from the heat of the sun.....
As for Donington itself, there is a notice on the gate that the Infield is closed for the year and work was indeed in motion on Sunday removing barriers from where the Spitfire used to be. The announcement that Moto GP is back in 2015 means that a large crowd can be accommodated comfortably when the area is re-opened next year.

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