Donington Park Sunday 7th June 2015

The rather garishly designed programme cover above gives you an idea where The Spectator headed to on this particular weekend. The first ever visit to Donington of the British Superkart Grand Prix, long circuit karting's main event of the year.
I only went on the Sunday of the 2 day meeting and a glance at the timetable before heading to the circuit meant that a very long day was in prospect! A mammoth 18 races were scheduled along with a couple of qualifying sessions. It was no surprise however when the commentator announced (even before racing began) that all timed races were to be reduced in length.
The British Automobile Racing Club (BARC) were the organisers of the weekend so car support to the Karts came in the shape of various races for the Classic Touring Car Racing Club (CTCRC), Clubmans ..who were celebrating their 50th Anniversary over the weekend, Classic FF1600 & FF2000 plus MG Owners Club.
The grandly titled FIA/CIK Superkart European Championship had a pair of races which kicked off their paltry 3 round series. Although relatively low on numbers the Division 1 Superkarts provided some good racing in the quickest karts on show. The British based Kart series were the stars of the show on this day without a doubt. There were 3 Grands Prix in total with individual races for Division 1/F450, 250 National & 125 Open classes. With a Grand Prix title at stake, each race seemed to mean a lot to the drivers involved and some excellent racing was to be seen throughout the field. Highlight for me was the 125 Open GP which featured a titanic lead battle until Chris Needham prevailed over Lee Harpham on the final lap. Of the 38 starters in the 250 National GP, only 19 finished as the classes notorious reliability issues kicked in!
If the days Kart racing was good, the days car racing was less so...The sheer speed of the Karts made all car racing look pedestrian in my opinion. The once great Classic Touring Car Clubs portfolio of series is a pale shadow of its former self with a confusing mish-mash of classes and series. Best car racing on the day was easily the pair of Classic FF1600 races.
Admission was £10 with the usual £5 discount for being a DPRAC member. I only bought a programme because BARC don't put entries for meetings on their website. It cost £3 but it seemed to have been produced by the Kart organisers as there was lots of information on them but the car racing entries were badly out of date and in haphazard order. The timetable that was printed was more of a vague guide to what may be out next! At times it was like there may have been a raffle to decide what was on track next such were the amount of changes to the schedule....

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