Historic Festival Donington Park

The smell of Castrol R could be found in the air at Donington Park last weekend as the paddock filled with classic racers for the Historic Festival…

The event also gave visitors the chance to take part in pit lane walks and really experience the ‘mechanical’ side to the meeting plus there was plenty else to do if not glued to the racing on track. This included taking in the Paul Swift’s ‘Britalian Job’ brilliant stunt show; these guys can do remarkable things in Sir Alec’s famous design, Charlie Croker and the gold heist re-lived.

Group B Rally cars could also be seen, as demos took place and entertained the crowds with the barp of exhausts and flames on over run…Also, where it all started for many of today’s historic racers strapped into the cock pit of a historic kart; these could be seen putting on displays and the sound of a villiers 2-stroke could be greatly enjoyed.

On track, the qualifying took place for all on the Friday, meaning it was all racing for the spectators over the weekend and everything classic could be spotted from Pre-War racers through to cars from the early 1990’s.

Saturday also had a 1,000km race, which ran towards the end of the day, this was a ninety minute endurance race for pre-73 prototype, Touring and GT cars. This race really took spectators back to the golden era of the World Sportscar Championship of the late 1960s and early 1970s, testing drivers, cars and pit crews alike.