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Donington Historic Festival 4-5 May Only Three Weeks to Go Join the Party - Enter Now

 

It’s only three-weeks until the 2024 Donington Historic Festival – and its shaping up to be another cracking season-opener. With grids looking strong across the board, now is the time to get your entry in. 

With grids for Pre-War Sports Cars, 50s Sports Cars, Pre ’63 GTs, Touring Cars from the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s, plus our 3-Hour endurance race for ‘50s and ‘60s cars, along with grids from the HRDC and Ferraro Owners Club, there will be a huge range of cars on track – both racing and demonstrating.

  

Among the many highlights at the event, we are particularly relishing the return of Pre ’63 GT. The renaissance has attracted strong interest after a season’s absence, with many old friends returning.  And we look forward to welcoming some new faces to the grid too.

The race is dominated by British flag bearing Le Mans racers like ‘DD’ the Austin-Healey 3000 of  well-known combination Karsten Le Blanc and Christiaen van Lanschot that contested a hattrick of Le Mans in ’60, ’61 & ’62 . They are joined by five further Austin-Healey’s including Doug Muirhead’s duel purpose 100/6 that also appeared at Le Mans with Jim Clark and has also participated in three RAC Rallies. Gregory Heacock’s Austin Healey Sebring Sprite was driven at Sebring by Sir Stirling Moss and raced by his sister Pat Moss.  Two familiar cars lead a battalion of Jaguar E-types, those of Gregor Fisken  and Jack Minshaw – both have multiple Goodwood Kinrara trophy wins under their belt.  Jack shares with his Uncle, Guy and completing a Minshaw trio is Jason who partners regular Jaguar racer, Martin Melling in his Fixed Head Coupe.

There are four classes in Pre ’63 GT and bolstering Class A for the under 1300cc cars is NASCAR and Sports Car racer Kyle Tilley  who lines up with brother Kane in their 1959 Lotus Elite.  Class B for cars under 2000cc feature Steve Wright & Ian Clarke’s  Porsche 356 Super and Gareth Evans’s Sunbeam Alpine.  The 60-minute Pre ’63 GT race takes place on Sunday with the race schedule for 14.20 after morning qualifying. 

 

As ever, the 40-minute ‘Mad Jack’ race for Pre-War Sports Cars has attracted a stellar line-up with all of last year’s podium finishers back to contest the race. It features the usual bevvy of brutish Bentley’s which will be hard-challenged by Michael Birch and Dan Balfour’s Talbot 105s. Father and son Robert and Josh Beebee’s Frazer Nash TT rep is a very special car as it was the first of this model to come out of the factory. It raced at Brooklands and held the 1.5 litre record at Shelsley Walsh HillClimb in 1936. They will be joined by Clive Fidgeon and Eddie Williams in another TT Rep with Brooklands history and another special ‘Nash – the stunning Frazer Nash BMW 328 of Vijay Mallya. Aston Martins play a strong hand in various guises, with one of the largest representations of the marque on the Pre-War grid for some time, featuring Team Cars, Ulsters, International Speed Model and the ‘Red Dragon’. 

Tim Dutton’s Type 44 Bugatti will come fresh from the Grover Williams Trophy at Goodwood Members Meeting; and never underestimate the Morgan Super-Aero of plucky racer, Sue Darbyshire which typically overhauls many of the larger cars in the race. 

There are limited places available in this race that is open to single or two-drivers.  

 

A troop of Historic Touring Cars spanning the generations line up on Saturday for the Historic Touring Car Challenge with Tony Dron Trophy and Sixties Touring car Challenge with U2TC.

Stand by your beds for the euphoric thunder of the Nissan Skyline’s as they wrestlr with the Donington Park curves – they’ll be up against the likes of the nimble BMW E30 M3s that dominated back in the day; known as the most successful Touring Car in the world having netted 1,400 race wins and numerous championship titles. 

The rapturous Rover SD1s of father and son racers Mike Whitaker Junior and senior headline the Tony Dron Trophy and the crowd-pleasing Lotus Cortina’s will contest U2TC.

 

The first outing of the season for the Royal Automobile Club Woodcote Trophy and Stirling Moss Trophy grids is lining up to be a classic, with a mighty line-up of Lotus, Lister and Cooper. Andrew Guy Smith netted his first Stirling Moss Trophy win at the close of last season in his ex-Tony Marsh Cooper Monaco. He will be quick out of the traps at Donington but will be harried by John Spiers in his Lister Jaguar Costin and last year’s race victors – Oliver Crosthwaite and Nick Finburgh also in a Cooper Monaco. 

Competition in the Lotus stakes is high with Olivier Gonzalez making the trip over from Belgium in his Lotus X1, joined by the pairing of Malcolm Paul and Rick Bourne – Sandy Watson and Dafyd Richards and Richard Postins and former BTCC racer Mat Jackson in similar cars. Richard Wilson will be trying to blast them all into the weeds in his larger capacity and later built Lotus XV!

The Woodcote Trophy brings its customary glamour to the grid with Jaguar C-and   D-types, Frazer Nash Le Mans Replica, XK140 Jaguar and a trinity of Austin Healy 100s.

Don’t miss your chance to be a part of this grid and enter the Royal Automobile Club Woodcote Trophy or Stirling Moss Trophy.

 

Last but by no means least – the headline of the Donington Historic Festival is the three-hour Royal Automobile Club Pall Mall Cup – the first true test of endurance of the season for Pre ’66 GT and Touring cars, and Pre ’61 Sports Cars, where cars can be shared by two drivers or even three, with in-race refuelling stops and driver-changes.  

For 2024 there has been an important change to the Pall Mall Cup pit-stop regulations. The five-minute pit stop duration has been relaxed to one-minute (unless a refuelling stop, where the 5-minute rule remains).  

An endearing feature of the Pall Mall Cup is the eclectic mix of cars in the entry, which is ever true here at Donington. The smaller capacity classes will feature the likes of the Lotus Elan 26Rs and Elites, while the MGBs will be having a whale-of-a-time in what currently looks like a family affair featuring the Wiltshire brothers George and Freddie and father and son Simon and Alexander Drabble.  

Shelby Cobras and Shelby Daytona Cobras are always at the fore and competition will be fierce with Tom Hartley partnered by Andrew Jordan, Frederic Laurent with David Cuff and Jeremy Cottingham with Harvey Stanley.  The Jaguar E-types will given them a run for their money with short odds on John Spiers with Gary Pearson or Richard Meins with Rob Huff to take victory.  More recently the Pall Mall Cup has become the domain of the TVR – Harry Barton and Oliver Rueben return to defend their 2023 title but will face a stiff challenge from Series debutants Kyle and Kane Tilley.

Don’t miss the chance to line up in this very special race – the first of three rounds this season. 

To enter please go to www.motorracinglegends.com and click on the Series you wish to enter and click on the ‘Click Here to Enter Online’ button