Things you might have missed at the Donington Historic Festival • MotorPunk

What a great event – The Donington Historic. For us it’s a less frenetic alternative to the Goodwood Revival; somewhere you can get closer to the good stuff, on and off track, and enjoy a burger that isn’t exorbitantly sourced from Lord March’s own hand-reared, spoon-fed, organic Dodo farm. Yes, it’s often a bit parky at Donington, but with a cuppa in one hand and a program in the other we took our seats at this year’s event. Here are a few things that you might have missed;

The best of the track action was surely the Historic Touring Car Challenge, the winner getting the Tony Dron trophy. A wonderful mismatch from Turbo’d Metros (a car we actually cheered on every lap) to mighty BMW CSLs, plenty of Capris and Rover SD1s. An SD1 took the trophy, MotorPunk points awarded from the media suite for the plucky Metros (one letting go on the last lap), increasingly noisy (broken?) Alfa Romeo GTV and a zippy R5 Turbo. Pics below;

Winning cars being pushed back to paddock. I would have helped but was too busy ogling. Marc Surers old car looks good. Remember him? Married to two Playboy models? And from beauty to buses, because this is Donington; The Connaught team bus is just ace.

And to the infield; upwind of the burger stalls, downwind of the wonderful fug of tyres, brakes and fuel being banged to vapour in a variety of engines that all drowned out the Ryanair departures from East Midlands Airport next door. The Nissan GTR owners club must all currently be inside. The Alfa Romeo looked just gorgeous and the Aston Martin’s stupid plate reminded us why we don’t really get them. In other news; we now want a Honda Chappie.

And to the garages and paddock. Here you can talk to the Racers, Mechanics and amateur racers about their exploits. No GRRC badges required, just mooch up and chat. Tar-sticky tyres, brake discs as ashtrays, exploded exhausts and other interesting bits serve as an earthy backdrop, the atmosphere here is wonderful.

And as another race starts we dash back to our seats to catch the action. There’s a nice little amateur video of the action at the Donington Historic online here (credit; GeordieCraig101). As a final shot, from the infield, something that racegoers might have missed. Two of our favourite cars, from almost opposite ends of the automotive spectrum, happily captured together; A Honda NSX and an MG Maestro Turbo.