Photography by Jayson Fong
Being greeted by spring sunshine on a Saturday morning was the best start to the 6th annual Donington Historic Festival—an event that now holds a firm place in the international historic racing calendar. Combining stunning grids, a historic circuit, and the atmosphere of a proper club meeting, it was no surprise to see multiple packed grids of 30+ cars enter Redgate corner side-by-side.
Although we were initially greeted by warm weather, anyone who was there could tell you that it didn’t stay for very long. Instead, visitors and competitors alike endured almost every weather condition possible from sun, rain, sleet, and snow. The result was a challenging weekend for drivers that, meanwhile, proved to provide lucky spectators the chance to see sideways action with historic cars cascading through the iconic Craner Curves.
Highlights were rife at Donington with a timetable of events that spanned a large part of the century of motorsport—from pre-war Bentleys, romantic ’50s and ’60s GT cars, and endurance prototypes from the ’70s during the “traditional” 1000km race, it was a long weekend action.
In particular, the Jaguar Classic Challenge proved to be an incredible spectacle with a large grid that covered almost every important pre-’66 racing Jaguar, including the special ‘3BXV’ semi-lightweight E-Type once piloted by Bruce Mclaren. Equally great to see was a huge ensemble of touring cars in events throughout the weekend.
No matter where you looked, smiles were all around, a testament to the club meeting atmosphere that Donington has been able to produce. Though the weather tried to throw everything it could at us throughout the weekend, it did little to dampen the spirits of those who attended the festival, which will no doubt be busier next year. I for one, can’t think of a better way to spend a long weekend and look forward to another one next year.
