The Motor Racing Spectator

After just about thawing out following the snow of Silverstone the week previously, it was time to return to Donington and a good looking Motor Sport Vision Racing organised meeting. Yet more snow was forecast earlier in the week but thankfully none materialised on a day that started cold and sunny and ended cold and damp (ish)! This was the second day of a 2 day meeting and, as MSVR are one of the leading organising clubs in the country, a large entry saw the Donington paddock full on Sunday morning. Kicking off racing was a 32 car grid for the VAG Trophy. The massed ranks of VW's plus the one SEAT always provide some lively racing and did so today with a pair of very good races. Race 1 was spoilt though with half the race taking place under the safety car, indeed finishing under the safety car frustratingly following a car recovery from the gravel trap on the inside of Craners. Darelle Wilson taking the flag but in race 2 was a first lap spinner at Redgate leaving the win to ...

Compiling the fixture list over the winter, the weekend of April 16/17 saw a glaring fixture clash the likes of which only British motorsport could come up with! World Endurance at Silverstone...Touring Cars at Donington..British GT/F3 at Brands Hatch plus the Historic Sports Car Club's 50th Anniversary meeting at Castle Combe....Crazy really and a shame that such a situation could occur but not exactly a surprise. As I'm a huge fan of the fantastic LMP1/LMP2 prototypes seen in the World Endurance Championship and European Le Mans Series there was only one place to be on this particular weekend. The night before, The Spectator was alarmed to see that Snow was forecast for Saturday morning! Knowing that Silverstone is always 10 degrees colder than what is actually forecast then I knew full well that snow would be a factor come the day itself! Travelling down the M1 it got gradually wetter and as the WEC cars came out for Practice at 9.00am sure enough the rain turned to snow...

For the first time in 6 years, The Spectator visited Oulton Park in Cheshire for a 750MC organised meeting. Indeed the 750MC hadn't run a meeting at Oulton since 2009 so a re-visit to one of the country's most scenic circuits was overdue for both club and fan! As I travelled to Oulton in pouring rain early on Saturday morning, I was wondering why I had chosen this particular day to travel to Cheshire but thankfully the rain was steady rather than heavy so no chance of any flooded circuit (unlike the cancelled Castle Combe Easter Monday meeting...) Due to local planning law, Oulton very rarely sees track action on a Sunday so the vast majority of meetings are one day Saturday only affairs. It's quite a rarity these days to spectate at a 1-day meeting and there's a purity somehow to seeing everything qualify AM, then race PM, then go home! 11 races were scheduled for the club's championships that weren't out to play at Donington 2 weeks before. So double ...