The Motor Racing Spectator

Mallory Park 5th May Silverstone 12th May Sunday May 5th saw The Spectator at Mallory Park for a 750 Motor Club meeting. The revived Mallory was looking in fantastic shape with new fencing and spectator banks in pristine condition. Real Motorsport Ltd have done a great job in turning the place around from the circuit's dark days of the recent past. Mallory Park looking in great condition 11 races were on the cards for the day and were highlighted by 3 frenetic Formula Vee encounters. The entry was split into 3 groups so each group raced twice across the days trio of races. The action was a little too fenetic in the first race with second placed James Harridge disqualified for forcing Graham Gant onto the grass down the Stebbe Straight. Gant did get some consolation later by winning Race 3 with Race 2 being won by Ben Miloudi's Storm. With 33 cars entered Formula Vee is still one of the most popular budget single-seater championships around and with over 50 years ...

Sunday 14th April finally saw The Spectator at a race meeting in 2019! Following the very wintry March/April of 2018, the early season fixture list this year seemed rather sparse with several clubs and circuits having later starts than normal in a bid to escape any bad weather. As is the way this year's Spring weather was distinctly more pleasant than last year.... Motor Sport Vision Racing (MSVR) were in charge at Donington with a 10 race each day schedule on the National circuit. On arrival at Donington I was greeted by the revamped entrance for spectators at the Paddock gates. MSV had certainly been busy over the winter with the area surrounding the Melbourne Hairpin being opened up and a concourse laid out with ticket booths. Alas the Melbourne Hairpin now has catch fencing around it's entire viewing area, which given the low speed nature of the corner is a shame and indicative of current safety thinking. On a very cold overcast day the first race of the new seaso...

Many apologies dear readers (reader?!) for my lack of updates during the 2018 season. A lack of time (one day we will discover a way to make days last 25 hours surely....) has led to letting my updating of the blog slip very badly. The irony is that I thoroughly enjoyed the 2018 season and would have liked to update more regularly so what I will do is post the remaining meetings I went to in 2018 in this post with programme covers and photos.  The 2019 season is around the corner and hopefully the blog will see more consistent updates. Motor Racing is still the greatest sport, yes enthusiasm may wane at times and things might not be what they once were, but we should be grateful it still exists in its many forms. The loss of Rockingham as a venue is a sign that nothing last forever and the sport will continue to change as we head ever further into the 21st century. So long as the anticipation and excitement is still there to make the sandwiches..to fill the flask...to make sure ...

Super Karts at the Melbourne Hairpin Donington Park BARC Sunday 3rd June 2018 The 40th anniversary of the British Superkart Grand Prix was the headline act at Donington Park on Sunday 3rd June. The BARC organised meeting saw a mixture of Superkart and car action with the various kart races supported by Mazda Max5, Mighty Mini, MG Owners Club, Clubmans, Kumho BMW & Classic FF1600 championship races to form a 17 race schedule on the Sunday of the 2-day meeting. The CIK-FIA European Superkart Championship made a rare appearance on British soil and German driver Peter Elkmann not only dominated the pair of European races, he also went on to win the Division 1 British GP plate race in his Anderson kart. F250 National karts competed for overall British Superkart Championship points along with a handful of F450 karts. Australian Jordie Forde taking the GP victory. Not to be out done by their larger engined counterparts, the F125 Open karts always provide spectacular racing and L...

Donington Park Saturday 5th May 2018 Time for another monthly update dear readers...Following on from a decidedly chilly Touring Car meeting at Donington on April 29th, it was back to Donington just 6 days later for the first raceday of the annual Donington Historic Festival. Organised this year by MSVR and not the HSCC, Saturday morning saw bright blue sky and a +20 degree change in temperature from the weekend before!  Qualifying for the weekend's activities had taken place on the Friday so it was wall to wall racing on Saturday with 10 races on the programme. The Donington Historic Festival (DHF) has always sat somewhat uneasily in the over-crowded Historic racing season since it's inception in 2011 in my opinion. Various FIA Historic series have visited in the past but as for this year there was nothing particularly headline grabbing.  Racing is racing though and there were 2 separate races for Formula Junior, front-engined and (you've guessed it!) rear engin...

     Truly awful "Spring" weather in March and early April put paid to The Spectator's best laid plans to go to any meetings. The weekend of March 17/18 saw the 750MC meeting at Donington get cancelled at lunchtime on the Saturday due to snow. Ironically the following weekend saw very pleasant weather yet I couldn't go anywhere. On Easter Monday I had planned to go the British GT opener at Oulton Park then thought better of it when I awoke to a covering of wet snow that morning! That the meeting was abandoned at Oulton early due to rain that day vindicated my decision not to go thankfully. Thankfully the various "Beast from the East" weather systems subsided and April eventually saw more traditional Spring weather take hold. That is 5 degrees one day...25 degrees the next!!  Having somewhat rashly purchased a MotorSportVision 4 Wheel Season Pass in March, it was with some relief that I finally got around to actually using it during the month of Apri...