May 5th 2016 – for immediate release
Rain doesn’t stop play at the Donington Historic Festival
In spite of the British weather throwing almost everything it had at it, the Donington
Historic Festival presented three days of hugely exciting historic motor racing over the
Bank Holiday weekend (April 30th-May 2nd).
Classic motorsport fans were treated to a vast range of competition cars from the 1920s
up to the 1990s, campaigning in a challenging range of climatic conditions ranging from
torrential rain and hail to high winds and even a scattering of snow! Happily these were
not constant throughout the weekend, and there was plenty of sunshine to show
Donington off in all its park-like beauty; and the frequently wet track made for some very
interesting racing indeed.
The rare and valuable historic competition machines were in safe hands, however, with
drivers such as Le Mans winner Jackie Oliver and Touring Car giants John Cleland, Tim
Harvey and Steve Soper representing earlier generations of racers, and present-day BTCC
stars Andrew Jordan, Matt Neal and Colin Turkington showing that today’s drivers are just
as comfortable behind the wheel of a decades-old race car as they are battling it out in the
latest works offering. Andrew Jordan and his father Mike took the chequered flag in the
final contest of the meeting, steering their Austin A40 – rebadged Austin GT40 for DHF –
to victory in the HRDC Touring Greats race.
Other well-known faces spotted around the paddock included musician Chris Rea, who
turned in an arresting performance in his Morris Minor ‘Police’ car, and motorsport pundit
Tony Jardine, who took to the track in an E-type in the Jaguar Classic Challenge. And a
familiar face to fans of 70s and 80s motor racing – Tony Dron – was on hand to present the
trophies for the inaugural round of Motor Racing Legends’ Tony Dron Trophy,
incorporated within MRL’s packed Historic Touring Car Challenge grid.
The Festival saw a mass presence of pre-War sports cars in the ‘Mad Jack’ race, and the
DHF debut of the Pre-80 Endurance series, which pitched Lola T292 and T282 against
Chevron B19 and March 75S in a fantastic battle. And it was also Lola vs. Chevron
(though this time T70s and B8s) in the mammoth, three-hour HMRN ‘1000km’ race into
dusk on the Saturday evening.
Paddock visitors had an immense amount of metal to feast their eyes on, ranging from
ERA R5D ‘Remus’, one of the iconic early Grand Prix cars taking part in the HGPCA’s
Nuvolari trophy, to Rickard Rydell’s Volvo S40 from his 1998 BTCC Championship-
winning season, which returned to racing for the first time in 18 years for the HSCC Super
Touring Car Trophy.
Other Festival highlights included lively demonstrations of historic Formula 1 cars and
Group B rally cars, the car club displays in the infield, and dozens of competition cars
taking to the streets of Castle Donington village for the now-traditional village parade.
The RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight joined in the fun, sending – most appropriately,
given the weather – a Hurricane to entertain the crowds.
The dates of DHF 2017 will be announced later this year. For more information or to
download the full racing results from the 2016 Donington Historic Festival, please visit
www.doningtonhistoric.com.
Ends
Editors, please note:
EFG, the global private banking group, is a principal partner of the Donington Historic Festival.
For further press information, please contact: Karen Coe on +44 (0)1728 684410. Or email:
[email protected]
Images – For a huge selection of downloadable print-res images to accompany editorial coverage, see
http://www.doningtonhistoric.com/press-media/images/