The Motor Racing Spectator

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...