15 racers that rocked the Donington Historic Festival
A mouthwatering array of prized competition metalwork graced the recent Donington Historic Festival and it was a privilege to be allowed to patrol the pitlane and officiate at the podium ceremonies armed with a mic in a bid to add extra colour to the commentary team.
Choosing an absolute favourite was tricky – less so selecting 15 beauties that stopped me in my tracks and brought on awe-struck-teenager levels of on-air gibbering.
Here, then, is an alphabetical (how else to separate them?) selection of single-seaters, sports-racers, tin-tops and GTs that have been safely stored away in the Files of Fever.
Alfa Romeo P3 Tipo B
Genesis manager Tony Smith’s achingly beautiful P3 is the very same car used by Richard ‘Mad Jack’ Shuttleworth to win the inaugural Donington Grand Prix back in 1935 and it wowed fans in the HGPCA Nuvolari Trophy double-header for pre-1940 GP racers.
Image: Tim Scott / Sportscar Digest
ERA R3A/R10B
Two of the finest English Racing Automobiles are Mark Gillies’ pale-green 1934 supercharged R3A and Paddins Dowling’s menacing, black 1936 1500cc blown R10B. Gillies won both Nuvolari Trophy races, while Dowling took second in the opener before handing the car to David Morris to secure P2 in the second. I love the exquisite hand-built engineering of these spindly yet alarmingly quick pre-war racers.
Image: Tim Scott / Sportscar Digest
Ferrari 512M
Paul Knapfield’s stunning recreation of Ferrari’s five-litre, V-12 sports-prototype from the halcyon days of early-1970s enduros had crowds round it for most of the weekend and experienced historic racer Knapfield drove solo to third in the one-hour 1000km for Pre-’72 Sports-Racing Cars event. If only there’d been a Gulf Porsche 917 there for that ultimate ‘Steve McQueen’ moment.
Image: Jonathan Moore / Speedhunters
Ford Falcon Sprint
Greek shipping magnate and historic collector and racer Leo Voyazides ran solo aboard his immaculate Allan Mann Racing-liveried V8 brute to win the Masters Pre-’66 Touring Car scrap. His victory over Roger Wills’s lairy Mercury Comet Cyclone was, of course, overshadowed by the crash that claimed the life of Mini Cooper racer Christian Devereux.
Image: Simon Hodson / Flickr
Jaguar E-type
Two races for the iconic E-type, once described by Enzo Ferrari as “the most beautiful car in the world”, produced fine battles in both heats. In the second – damp and greasy – leg Martin O’Connell charged from the back to win in the best-looking of the British beasts: 936 VPL, the dark-blue-and-orange machine owned by Sandy Watson.
Image: Henry Hope-Frost
Jaguar XJR16
Sporting the period Bud Light livery used by the Tom Walkinshaw Racing squad in IMSA GTP, the US equivalent of Group C, in 1991, the twin-turbo V6-engined Big Cat appeared in the first of two scheduled Group C races at Donington in the hands of Richard Eyre. The car suffered electronic glitches in the race but the sight and sound of the high-downforce prototype brought goosebumps to all who saw and heard it.
Image: GTspirit.com
Lancia LC2
Anything wearing the evocative Martini stripes looks good, and Roger Wills’s 1984 Lancia LC2 Group C beast is right at the top of that hard-to-judge branded beauty contest. Kiwi Wills brought the car home fifth in the Group C event, which brought a brief respite from the pit garage ogling by all who walked past the Ferrari V8-engined car.
Image: Simon Hodson / Flickr
Lola T70
Thumping five-litre V8 power shoehorned into the back of the slippery yet muscular shape of British marque Lola’s T70s always ensures gasps of delight from fans anywhere near them. The Leo Voyazides/Simon Hadfield ‘Brazilian’ Mk3B triumphed in the Pre-’72 Sports Racing Car race after a strong scrap with the similar car of Martin Stretton/Grant Tromans.
Image: Jonathan Moore / Speedhunters
March 782
Hordes of howling Formula 2 cars from great names Brabham, Chevron, Lola, March and Ralt twice thrilled DHF visitors as the pack, spanning the 1970s, raced hard for HSCC Historic F2 honours. My favourite was Peter Meyrick’s Toleman Group-liveried March 782, in which he charged from the back to third in the second heat following post-race disqualification from a first-race P3.
Image: Simon Hodson / Flickr
Maserati 8CM
The beautiful, dark-blue Maserati was, I was bowled over to learn from its pedaller Rob Newall, the very car used by Prince Bira to finish sixth in the 1937 Donington GP – best-placed of the Voiturettes, albeit some two laps behind the dominant Auto Union and Mercedes-Benz Silver Arrows.
Image: Henry Hope-Frost
McLaren M1C
Arch enthusiast, collector and racer Roger Wills sold his papaya orange M1B Can-Am monster earlier in the year and acquired the later M1C in which he contested the one-hour Pre-’72 Sports Racing Car race. All Can-Am wedges are attention-grabbers but anything with a McLaren badge on the nose and a five-litre Chevrolet V8 in the back is particularly special.
Image: Jonathan Moore / Speedhunters
MG Metro Turbo
The diminutive Computervision-liveried Metro is the car that former touring car ace-turned historic racer Patrick Watts used in European championship events in 1984. Having recently re-acquired the turbocharged 1300cc machine, Watts revelled in the HTCC 1966-’85 tin-top event sharing with Mini tuning ace and racer Nick Swift.
Image: Henry Hope-Frost
Rover Vitesse ETCC
Resplendent in its original Bastos tobacco livery, the Rover Vitesse raced by Chris and Charlie Williams in the HTCC 1966-’85 Touring Car race brought back memories of the Tom Walkinshaw Racing-run V8s thundering to numerous victories in the European Touring Car championship in the mid-80s, particularly at Donington, where Walkinshaw and Win Percy doubled-up in 1985 and ’86.
Image: Henry Hope-Frost
Sauber-Mercedes C11
No-one was surprised when Gareth Evans romped to an easy win from pole position aboard the all-conquering C11 in the DHF’s Group C retrospective. This particular chassis is a test mule from late-1989, but its sister cars won all but one of the eight world sportscar championship races they contested in 1990, including a one-two at Donington. The reaction all weekend – mostly stunned silence – to the five-litre V8 Group C ‘Silver Arrow’ proved its impact then and now.
Image: Simon Hodson / Flickr
Veskanda
One of the real feel-good moments from the DHF was gritty Australian Paul Stubber qualifying the rare Veskanda on the front row for the Group C encounter. Used by Aussie star John Bowe to great effect in his domestic sportscar series in the mid-80s, the Chevy-powered machine faded to fourth in the race but won new admirers.
Image: Henry Hope-Frost
By Henry Hope-Frost
