Wednesday 9th June 2010

Donington Returns This Autumn

Midlands circuit will reopen in September after abandoned F1 foray

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Donington Park circuit will reopen with a weekend of historic racing in September.

The circuit's new leaseholder, Adroit, is working with Masters Historic Racing to present a 12-race programme on the weekend of 3-5 September called Donington Revived - A Celebration.

The three-day event will include everything from F1 cars of the 70s and 80s, to 1960s saloon cars, to 1970s Can Am racers.

Adroit and Donington Park' s owner, Kevin Wheatcroft, are underway with the rebuild plan to rectify the half-finished work started for the now-abandoned project to hold the British GP at the East Midlands circuit. They are in close consultation with the MSA (the UK governing body of motorsport) to create a re-construction timetable that will allow for the track to be fully ready and inspected in good time for the event date.

Daily tickets will include full paddock access and grandstand seating, and will cost from just £16 for adults; a weekend two-day pass will cost £25.

[Beefmeister]

Great news. Donningtom is one of my fave circuits, and deserves some good racing there.

The whole F1 debacle is frankly embarassing.

[Dave^]

Sounds promising!

Only ever been to DP once, and that was for the free Renault World Series a few years ago... it's was awful...

[chickensoup]

12 weeks to have it open for a 3 day festival sounds like a lot of hard work

Is tarmac down yet?

[Scuffers]

Great news...

Hat's off to Kevin Wheatcroft and co. for sorting this out.

[Frimley111R]

chickensoup said:

12 weeks to have it open for a 3 day festival sounds like a lot of hard work

Is tarmac down yet?

What tarmac? From what I understood they never got as far a digging up the track itself

[ally_f]

Great news, Donington's my favourite track!

[Stevesh]

Good news. I look forward to doing more track days there!

Seve

[Scuffers]

Frimley111R said:

chickensoup said:

12 weeks to have it open for a 3 day festival sounds like a lot of hard work

Is tarmac down yet?

What tarmac? From what I understood they never got as far a digging up the track itself

unfortunately, they did dig up several 'channels' across the track as well as some complete patches.

[MSportUK]

Dave^ said:

Sounds promising!

Only ever been to DP once, and that was for the free Renault World Series a few years ago... it's was awful...

It was that very event (2 hours to get in, 5 hours to get out) which made me certain from the outset that the F1 plan would never work. Donington is a fantastic circuit though - I'd encourage you to go back when it's not rammed full of chavs after a freebie.

[emailiscrap]

They had wrecked significant portions of the track from the photos I'd seen a few months back.
If they can turn it around in 12 weeks I'll be amazed - and very happy!

[minicab]

We need someone with access to a helicopter and a decent camera to get some shots of the new track...

...have they changed the layout at all?

Would be a shame to see the famous craner curves go

[Scuffers]

from what's been said, only change to the cct is they have moved goddards back a little.

[Caractacus]

Good luck to them, I really hope they pull this one out of the hat.

Donny is a brilliant circuit and deserves to be reborn after the almighty mess that was created.

[Porkie]

Awesome news. hope trackdays there soon follow!

[ds666]

I visited last week and work is well inhand .There are numerous trenches across the track to be filled . The loss of the Dunlop bridge really changes the look of the back straight .Looking forward to the reopening of this great circuit.

[Mrlol]

Heres what it looked like before

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDvULbnz_lk

They've got they're work cut out !

[rossp]

Beefmeister said:

Donningtom is one of my fave circuits

Do you mean Donington?

This is my local circuit and I can;t wait for it to re-open for trackdays

Edited by rossp on Wednesday 9th June 15:57

[_Casanova_]

Excellent news - I had the best fun I've had on any track day I've done at Donington in November 2008, shortly before it shut. I had feared it would be lost for good. Look forward to getting a chance to drive it again!

[Dave^]

MSportUK said:

Dave^ said:

Sounds promising!

Only ever been to DP once, and that was for the free Renault World Series a few years ago... it's was awful...

It was that very event (2 hours to get in, 5 hours to get out) which made me certain from the outset that the F1 plan would never work. Donington is a fantastic circuit though - I'd encourage you to go back when it's not rammed full of chavs after a freebie.

The queueing was a joke, the whole M1 was jammed!!

Even worse was all the Stella swigging dheads that were there once you did get in, and the Portaloos...

[hooperpride]

Top stuff, always liked Doninigton, it was the first track I went to as a kid.