Now in its third year, the Donington
Historic Festival is cementing itself as a well-regarded historic
race meeting. In the scribes opinion this event should have the potential
to establish itself as large as the Silverstone Classic. The entries
are there, and the venue is one of the most historic in the UK. It
is been organised conjunctly between Donington Park and Historic Promotions,
which is a good blend as both have a vested interest in ensuring historic
motor sport reaches the public at large – the circuit owner
(who wishes to attract as much attention as possible to their venue)
and the event organiser (who has their business interests at stake).
Over 400 entries across twelve fields, from
pre-war through to Group C sports cars. The scribe obtained media
accreditation for this event, allowing him to attend in front of the
trackside wire fencing to take some good happy snaps. The media centre
facility at the circuit was quite well set up with tea/coffee facilities
and light snacks, staffed full-time, and had laid out documentation
including abundance of programmes, schedule, press releases and circuit
map. Event results – qualifying lap sheets & grid sheets
where posted on the wall, and in this area is where the organisers
would occasionally display “Bulletins”. The bulletins
obtained information such as entrant withdrawals and reasons for DNFs.
The room, which overlooked the main straight (adjacent to race control),
also included free Wi-fi.
An initial wander around the paddock area is
always warranted, somewhat of a recognisance mission. What an eye-opener.
The quality of cars racing here was just as good as at the Goodwood
Revival in 2004 (last time the scribe attended a UK/Europe event).
Nuvolari Trophy for pre-1940 thoroughbred
Grand Prix cars
The Historic Grand Prix Cars Association (HGPCA)
purchased a grid and promoted the “Nuvolari Trophy for pre-1940
thoroughbred Grand Prix cars”. What a field; two P3 Alfas, a
Monza Alfa, the Parnell MG, Maseratis, and no less than 7 ERAs. And
of course, Bugattis too, including Nick Mason’s T35B (campaigned
by Charles Knill-Jones).
It was an ERA benefit for the weekend with
R3A of Mark Gillies & R10B of Paddins Dowling occupying the top
two places in both races. Gillies just far too quick against Dowling,
who was not hanging about. Dowling would keep on his tale for the
first few laps, but knowing that he would not get close enough, chose
to back off as lapped traffic came into play. Callum Lockie took third
in his Maserati 6CM.
Above
photo: The Maserati 8CM that Prince Bira of Siam drove at
Donington in period, raced for the first time since then in 2013 by
Robert Newell for owner Chris Jacques.
Duncan
Ricketts in ERA GP1 had an ‘all-nighter’ Saturday night
replacing a broken diff, replacement works carried out with no assistance.
Storming through the field, he retired during lap 3.
Six of the first seven places in the second,
and final 25-minute race for the Nuvolari Trophy were taken by ERA,
with Lockie’s Maserati holding on to third. Charles McCabe finished
4th in the ex. Bira & Lindsay R3B ‘Remus’, rapidly
showing signs that he will be a front-runner in the near future.AJM1,
R4A & R9B filled 5th to 7th with Tony Smith taking 8th in his
P3 Alfa. In cidently, this car is the P3 that Nuvolari won the 1938
Donington Grand Prix. This car was also driven in period by Reg Parnell,
and sone Tim was on hand to see the car for the first time in many
years. You’ll find him about to sit on the front left tyre in
one of the photo galleries.
Pre-63 GT – Endurance race
In Australia we have Group S for production
sports cars, which is made up of cars from the late 1950s-mid-1970s
that conform to eligibility criteria to represent cars from that time.
Guess the UK version of this has to be the ‘E-Type Challenge’
with all cars conforming to a strict criteria & having to visit
parc-ferme after every track session. John Pearson won the first race
by a country mile, but took second in race two following a terrific
battle with Martin O’Connell.
Saturday
afternoon saw the first of the 1 ½ hour endurance races, and
this race for Pre-63 GT cars provided quite a spectacle. You would
think that after such a long time the race would fizzle out and become
boring, well not in the UK with the way these guys drive. The expected
winner coming into the race was the Ferrari 250 SWB entry with Le
Mans legend Jackie Oliver and Gary Pearson at the wheel. Not one,
but two tyre punctures with Pearson at the wheel (rear-right both
times) forced them to finish in 8th, but after the first they managed
to get back to 3rd behind the Aston Martin’s. Gary Pearson had
swapped cars at this point and taken over the wheel of Carlos Monteverde’s
Aston Martin DB4. Nick Naismith (competing in a solo drive) overtook
the Monteverde/Pearson DB4 in his Aston Martin DB4 to storm home to
victory after 51 laps, a winning margin of 3.4 seconds.
Above
photo: Jackie Oliver comes in to hand over to Gary Pearson
with this stunning Ferrari 250 SWB.
You
can also tell those who take it seriously and those who don’t
with their pit stops!
RAC Woodcote Trophy for Pre-56 Sportscars
With an entry list that included multiple Jaguar
D-Type, Aston Martin, Maserati 300S & A6GCS, Cooper-Jaguar, Cooper-Bristol,
Lister, Ferrari 750 Monza, Austin-Healey (with 100S & 100M), Frazer
Nash and a Cunningham it was to be an absolute highlight for the weekend,
so the scribe positioned himself on the outside of the chicane that
enters on to the main straight.
Above
photo: Chris Guest steers his 1954 Kurtis 500S through the
chicane.
The
one-hour race that Saturday afternoon did not disappoint with a race
long, close fought battle between two of the D-Types, both of which
were co-piloted by Gary Pearson. The Pearson brothers fought for lap
after lap at the beginning of the race, and Gary was the first to
pit where he handed over to Monteverde, then taking over from John
as he pitted shortly after. Monteverde drove the wheels off the ex.
Jim Clark D-Type to take the flag after 41 laps from the Pearson car
some 17 seconds back. The sports-car bodied Cooper-Bristol (one of
two in the race) of John Ure & Nick Wigley came home in third.
A third D-Type took fourth from a Maserati 300S. staggering too was
the average lap speed across the race for the Monteverde/Pearson D-Type
was 90.73 MPH.
Group C Sportscars
The
untimely death of Mini driver Christian Devereoux in the pre-1966
touring car race Sunday afternoon led to the cancellation of the remainder
of the meeting. One of those races being the Group C event. Fortunately,
though we got to see a rain-shortened qualifying session & the
first race.
Australian Paul Stubber is continuing to improve
the 1985 Veskanda that he bought from John Briggs a few years back
and has now finished the restoration, changed the colour to red &
made a couple of small modifications, including removal of the front
wing & insertion of brake-cooling vents above the front wheels.
Amongst a small, but quality field this work had him qualify in second
place, ahead of Spice, Porsche, Lancia, Cheetah, Tiga, Jaguar and
Argo. Gareth Evans was the only one to pip him, but when you have
a Mercedes-Sauber C11 at your disposal, it’s little wonder!
Above
photo: The 1990 Cheetah CT606 of Eric Rickenbacher approaching
the first turn during qualifying.
Evans
took race one easily by 17 seconds over the first of two Spice (second
and third) with an average lap speed of 107.63 MPH. Stubber spun (can’t
recall which lap), but recovered to finish in fourth. Considering
the Veskanda was one of the oldest cars in the field, quite a good
effort, finishing ahead of the Lancia-Martini LC2 of Roger Wills &
two Porsche 962C.
Stirling Moss Trophy for pre-1961 Sportscars
Another race filled with stunning cars from
the period. It was a Lister affair with the Lister-Costin of Ward
& Buncombe victorious over the Lister-Knobbly of Lynn (solo drive).
After 44 laps the remaining 16 finishers were all lapped, most more
than once. Third place went to the Champion & Stretton Lotus XI
Le Mans.
Belgium Gregory De Prins put in a stellar effort
in his father’s Reja MkIV. The scribe had dinner with them on
the Saturday night at the official dinner and found out all about
the pretty Belgium made sportscar, one of only 12 built – three
entered at Donington.
Historic F2
One
of the most exciting fields to watch across the weekend was perhaps
the Historic F2 races. Imagine five cars vying for the lead, lap after
lap, with 3-4 entering corners at the same time on various occasions.
Very exciting stuff, particularly in race one when a front runner
decided to lunge their engine on the first lap, so a long period of
clean up caused heaps of dust thrown up into the air after the re-start,
although the leaders could not get too much of an advantage.
Above
photo: James Brayshaw kicks up the dust through turn one
in his 1978 March 782.
March
seemed to dominate the starting grid, and indeed four of the five
top finishers with Martin Stretton & Andrew Smith battling down
to the chequered flag in their March 742s, with Stretton the victor,
by 0.501 seconds.
Race two though was a different affair with
Stretton putting in fastest lap, then retiring on lap 21, which handed
over the lead to Smith, taking the win. The Ralt RT1 of Nick Fleming
finished second, some 3 seconds back, followed by the March 782 of
Peter Mayrick some 3.2 seconds further back for third.
‘1000 km’ for pre-72 sportsracing
cars
The final endurance race on Saturday afternoon,
but finishing past 7:30pm in the evening was the pre-1972 sportsracing
car race. And what a sight to see all those ‘big-banger’
cars hit the track, and race. Lola T70 and Chevron B8 & B16 were
the most popular cars in the field, but if you desired an SF, then
why enter your screaming Ferrari 512M or a Ford GT40. Racing (like
many others) a few cars across the weekend, Roger Wills, driving the
sole McLaren (M1C) in the event retired on the twelth lap, but would
have finished well in the top four. After 49 laps (and the sunset
taking over) the Lola T70 Mk3B of Leo Voyazides and Simon Hadfield
took the chequered flag, some 18.6 seconds ahead of the T70 of Stretton
& Thomas. All remaining cars, including the aforementioned Ferrari
512M were lapped at least once.
Thoughts
If you are planning a trip to the UK to check
out a motor race meeting and want to see some proper, close historic
racing, then I would strongly suggest the Donington Historic Festival.
Although it doesn’t have the ambience of Goodwood Revival it
has a very historic venue, and a very quality line-up, not to mention
a very well managed event from an organiser’s point of view.
Historic
Racing Australia