Donington Park
is a site near Castle Donington in North West Leicestershire, England, owned by Donington Ventures Leisure Ltd. It is used as a motor racing track, and is also the venue for The Download Festival. Donington Park has a contract to stage the Formula One British Grand Prix for a period of ten years from 2010.
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DONINGTON PARK TICKETS
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Motor Racing
The original Donington track was opened in 1931, and initially used for motorcycle races.
[1] In 1935 it saw
Richard Shuttleworth win the Donington Grand Prix in an
Alfa Romeo P3, in the
1937 Donington Grand Prix and 1938
Donington Grand Prix, the race winners were respectively
Bernd Rosemeyer and
Tazio Nuvolari, both in
Auto Union '
Silver Arrows'.
The circuit at Donington Park was closed in 1939 due to
World War 2, when it became a military vehicle depot. In the early 1970s the circuit was bought by Tom Wheatcroft, who funded the rebuilding of the track, which was re-opened
May 27,
1977. The first postwar race meeting was organised by the Nottingham Sports Car Club, but that nearly didn't happen, as the local ramblers tried to assert their rights to retain access to footpaths at
the eleventh hour. The meeting went ahead as a "Motor Trial", a legal loophole that curtailed the use of single seater racing cars for that opening meeting.
The NSCC continued to run race meetings at Donington until the Donington Racing Club was formed and a licence to run race meetings obtained.
The Melbourne Loop was built in 1985 to increase the lap distance to and allow the track to host Grand Prix motorcycle races - at without the loop, the circuit was deemed too short. This shorter layout remains as the National circuit, which is used for most non-Grand Prix events.
In recent times Donington has held meetings of
MotoGP, the
British Touring Car Championship and
British Superbikes, as well as the
1993 European Grand Prix.
Other events taking place at the track include the
World Series by Renault and the
Great and British Motorsport Festival. On
26 August 2007 the circuit hosted the British
Motocross Grand Prix, with a purpose-built motocross circuit constructed on the infield of the road circuit
[2].
In 2007 the track was sold to
Donington Ventures Leisure Ltd. [3]
Donington Park is also home to a museum known as the
Donington Grand Prix Exhibition which opened in 1973, and has the largest collection of Grand Prix cars in the world.
Formula One
1993 European Grand Prix
Donington Park was the host of the
1993 European Grand Prix on
11 April 1993, which was affected by rain. The race was notable for the dominance of
Ayrton Senna where he won the race by over 1 minute from
Damon Hill, having advanced from fifth to first in less than two-thirds of the opening lap.
This race was described by
AtlasF1 as the 'Drive of the Decade'
[4]. There is a memorial to Senna in the grounds of the racetrack, outside a shop selling motorsports memorabilia.
2010 onwards
On
4 July 2008,
Bernie Ecclestone announced that Donington Park will hold the
British Grand Prix from
2010 onwards in a 10-year deal (having been hosted exclusively by
Silverstone since 1987).
[5] The track will have a major upgrade, which was announced on 10 July 2008 to include an entirely new pit complex along Starkey's Straight and increasing the circuit length to 3 miles, by the addition of a new infield loop, to get it up to the standards required for modern day Formula One racing. Experienced circuit architect
Hermann Tilke will be involved in the work.
[6] [7]
Music Festivals
Donington Park has a great pedigree of holding rock concerts and festivals, having played host to the
Monsters of Rock concerts from the early 80s to mid 90s, when groups such as
AC/DC,
Metallica - who have each headlined three times - and
Iron Maiden - who have headlined a record four times - performed there. More recently, it has played host to
Stereophonics'
A Day At The Races
event in 2001, and the
Ozzfest in 2002.
The
Download Festival began at the venue in 2003, headlined by Iron Maiden and
Audioslave. The event has been held each summer since then.
2008 Motocross Des Nations
On the 27th and 28th of September 2008, the
Motocross des Nations, the biggest and longest running event in World Championship Motocross, comes to Donington Park.
[8]
Location
The location of the circuit has been disputed for years. Whilst lying within the borders of
Leicestershire, south of the
River Trent, its postal address uses a
Derby postcode, it has a Derby telephone
Area Code and
East Midlands Airport is just a mile down the road.
Donington Park is located just off the
M1 and is very close to
East Midlands Airport, and aircraft taking off fly directly over the circuit at low altitude, as can been seen from this .
Media
Donington Park has been simulated and can be driven in several racing simulations, such as
Spirit of Speed 1937
(the 1937 version of the track is featured, as the name suggests),
Sports Car GT, Le Mans 24 Hours, ToCA Touring Cars, ToCA 2 Touring Cars, ToCA Race Driver, ToCA Race Driver 2,
TOCA Race Driver 3, GTR,
GTR2,
GT Legends,
F1 Challenge '99-'02(with a mod), MotoGP 3,
rFactor,
SBK-07, and
Race Driver: GRID.
References
- Donington Park draws on history as Silverstone hands over British Grand Prix from 2010
- FOX FIM Motocross Grand Prix of Great Britain-Last Info
- Donington is sold
- The Races we Remember: the Specials of the 90s
- Donington on track to take race from Silverstone in a 10 year deal
- http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/69022 Donington reveals revamp plans
- http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2008/09/05/2010-donington-park-f1-track-revealed/
- http://www.redbull.com/articlePrintVersion.action?articleID=1221122427909-275544793