British GP to be held at Donington

[p261brm]

[QUOTE=grantp;2605625]Jim,
What puzzles me about the work that has been carried out was that the earth works alongside the 'Dunlop' straight (where the new pits complex was to be) QUOTE]
Could this be something to do with 'the master plan' to deter future plans to re-open the circuit? In spite of Jim's re-search and his obvious commitment, I still think the whole charade has reached the end of the line, certainly for the BGP, and also future motor sport to take place at Donington. Too much jiggerypokery about the whole affair, it stinks to be frank. Iligitimei Carborundie, & regards for the dream.

[grantp]

Jim,

OK, I understand about the loop. I seem to recall there was once some mention of extending it further as with the original pre-war loop and wondered whether that was something you had heard more about.

I don't think the Sunday market site would be affected nor the existing airport parking in terms of revenue generation potential, depending on the lease terms.

However it may be that the parking is a separate deal and the running of the Sunday Market had been taken back in house by DVLL about a year ago. Whether this explained the seemingly much reduced area of retailers in recent times, as viewed from inside the circuit, I don't know. There may be other factors that simply made it look less full.

The odd thing about the earth works along the straight is that it i, approximately, the same height as the previous spectator banking/MotoX track high point but much wider and flat on top. Plus higher at the esses end of course. It would be very high compared the rest of the circuit. At the Coppice corner end I would have thought a 3 storey building would have been right on the limits of the height controls related to the airport systems even at the original level. I seems to recall one of the plans showed the line. However the marker osts for the minor Hairpin re-alignment suggested that the elevation there would not change much - so the end of the fast straight would be a downhill into the hairpin perhaps even more than it is now.

In turn that would have made the 'new' club circuit Esses quite different, one way or another by making a steepish drop into the first part and then again into the second.

Still, it's all conjecture now.

p261brm,

As they stand the earthworks I referred to are just a pile of earth where there was a different shaped pile of earth. And the MotoX track gone ... It's no big deal.

As far as I could see there are a dozen or so 6 to 8 ft wide strips of tarmac removed, seemingly related to piping for improved restroom facilities, and all between McLeans and round the loop to Goddards. The tyre walls have been moved out. The inside armco has been removed from near the new tunnel around to the Fogarty Esses. The new tunnel, of course, needs finishing off, presumably slightly differently to how it was intended to be finished as part of the new development of the pit lane entrance.

Some of the infield inside Coppice has been dug out ready for the pits development but only up to the fence line.

It looks to me more like a low cost attempt to make it look like things were progressing in order to attract investors rather than wholesale unmitigated vandalism. But I could be wrong.

[Farbrooke]

Quite some assumption - you all appear to be making - that the finished levels of the earthworks are correct - be about the one and only thing yer man got right if they are- lets face it his management of tunnel building leaves a lot to be desired.

[ascarracinguk]

he would have had nothing to do with building the tunnel or pits...he just signs the cheques....or rather didnt lol

[Eddie_harasym]

The raised banking has been there for ages along the proposed new pit complex, as I understood it, it hand't been fully excavated yet.

From my viewing of the work required, where you get 2m from I don't know. It certainly wouldn't be that in actual costs, so I assume the figure is for a large contractor putting margins on a bad situation.

I think we all know it will be put back to the same circuit it was before, and by 2011 business as usual.

[Asp]

Now that it's been confirmed that the GP won't be at Donington, there's been a huge amount of crossover between various threads all over the forums.

As there's nothing F1 specific about the issue now, I'm going to close this thread and direct everyone to Trackside.

I apologise that this will mean that you may have to re-state things in the other thread (however, that'll be easier to follow than merging everything), and by keeping everything in one place it'll be easier to speculate and discuss the hopeful future of the circuit with everyone's contributions. I appreciate there might be a bit of short-term confusion, but it's far to say that the topic will rumble on and on and long-term it will make things much easier to follow.