"GP Live" Donington 18-20 May (and is the price extortionate?)

[Sheila M]

Originally Posted by John Turner

One of the highlights of the weekend for me was the superb display by Ammamuller of the 2005 RBR on Saturday. He was chucking it around and clearly enjoying himself, something he managed to convey to those few spectators watching. Wheelies, spins, 'donuts' and a few quick laps really got our attention. You got the impression that he didn't want to stop. Sadly this was pulled on Sunday - Politics, money? Who knows, but the Sunday spectators missed a treat:-

It was rather good wasn't it?

It should have appeared again on the Saturday afternoon and Sunday, but the team told me that there had been a double booking and they had to be in Germany for the Sunday. Hence only the one appearance by Ammamuller. He looked decidedly fed up when I went to find him for his slot on the Saturday afternoon - such a shame as I think he would have liked to have gone out to play again.

[John Turner]

'Simply the best' was an attempt to pay tribute to Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher. Unfortunately, the latter was represented by a single Ferrari that broke down on the first lap, as you can see from gachjoel's post above. Senna was remembered by the Toleman Hart which was the first GP car he raced, and Damon Hill's 1994 FW16 representing the last, which both circulated for a while. But what about in between? No Lotus; no McLaren? Did I miss them? Apologies for the poor quality of the images:-

[John Turner]

A few shots taken from the saturday running of this, all taken from inside the circuit at the approach to Coppice.

Described in the programme as Peter Mann's 1952 (so not Brooklands Era) 4 cylinder Frazer Nash, this confuses me. The body is very similar to a Le Mans Replica in which case it would surely have a 6 cylinder Bristol engine. Anyone help me out, here? And how about the position of the steering wheel? Not ideal surely?:-


1936 Alta, owned by J Fernandez and driven by Sam Stretton, according to the programme:-


LM15, a 1934 works Aston Martin. Owned and drriven by Russell Hicks to whom I had the pleasure of speaking in the paddock about this lovely car:-


Again not Brooklands era but great to see; the 1951 Osca V12, owned and driven by Peter Wuensch:-


I will get to the races when I've decided how to present them!

[Tim the Grey]

John thanks for the dissection, and pictures...

I'm afraid I'm merely reading this thread now out of sheer morbid curiosity!

Not your fault, keep up the sterling service to date.

[John Turner]

Thanks, Tim! It actually wasn't all bad. This race was a case in point; it turned out to be pretty good. The problem was numbers, as in lack of! The programme listed 26 entries, and what a splendid sight that would have made. Unfortunately, only 11 turned up to qualify, 12 started the race (Abba Kogan was the extra one) and 9 finished. Cars such as the BRM P160, Lotus 49 and the Matra MS120 all entered for this race simply didn't appear on track, although I'm sure that I saw all three in the paddock.

As I said, and despite the numbers, this was pretty good race with at least 3 different leaders. One of them was a welcome addition to the programme; the very smart Fittipaldi F5A/2, entered by Paul Quinn Racing and driven by Steve Allen who had qualified it 3rd. I must confess that when I saw him take the lead, I rather hoped that he would stay there; it would have been in keeping with the meeting if you get my drift. Unfortunately, he dropped back, then appeared to recover some of his earlier pace, but finally retired after completing 16 laps:-


The race was won by Nico Bindells in the Lotus 77, but fastest man on the track for some of the time, and posting fastest race lap, was Abba Kogan who brought his Williams FW06 through the field to a fine 2nd. However, while he had been working through the field, and with the demise of both the Steve Allen and Paul Wuensch (Wolf WR1) cars, Bindells had simply driven way from the small field and had lapped everybody but Kogan who finished well over a minute behind:-


A fine sight was the Hesketh 308C driven to 3rd place by Steve Hartley:-

[benjabulle]

Some of my photos, tell me if you want to see a particular car (except the older ones) :

[gachjoel]

Some of my photos, tell me if you want to see a particular car (except the older ones) :

Do you have from the EuroBoss race.
The Benneton by any chance.

Thanks in advance

Gary

[benjabulle]

Originally Posted by gachjoel

Do you have from the EuroBoss race.
The Benneton by any chance.

Thanks in advance

Gary

Which Benetton ? the B192, B194 or Ascari B197 ?

[gachjoel]

Originally Posted by benjabulle

Which Benetton ? the B192, B194 or Ascari B197 ?

eeerrrmmmmmm

The one that won the race on sunday
sorry not up with my models

[benjabulle]

Ok, it's the B194 (1994 car, first title of M.Schum), you got some photos on my Donington page : http://www.gurneyflap.com/eurobossdoningto.html
and I have much more of it here :
http://www.gurneyflap.com/formule190'spage.html

[gachjoel]

many many thanks

[esper]

the Hesketh 308. can't describe, just..........to beautifull...................

[benjabulle]

Originally Posted by esper

the Hesketh 308. can't describe, just..........to beautifull...................

Which one ? 308E ?





or 308C ?

[John Turner]

Great pics guys, keep them coming. Noting both the number of posts and even more so the number of viewers, currently over 3000, this thread seems to be more successful than the event it is covering. An indication surely of the interest that the meeting engendered and the will for it to be more successful in the future.

The FIA Historic F1 races were, not surprisingly, the best supported of the weekend, since they formed part of the championship. 27 entries, with 20 actually getting to the grid. Some good racing with, for a while, a breakaway group of 4 contesting the lead woth one or two good battles further down the field. Joachim Folch only qualified 6th, but was part of this leading group, and hit the front and winning by 6.2 seconds in his Brabham BT49D:-



2nd place man, Hubertus Bahlsen, in the Arrows A4:-


Richard Eyre's Williams FW08 positively dwarfs the Tyrrell P34 of Mauro Pane in their battle for 5th place which Eyre won by just 1.8 seconds. It's a pity the Martin Stretton (who was at the meeting) didn't bring the P34 out that he runs for its owner, but that car only appears occasionally each year at bigger established meetings. Someone very close to me also suggested that Martin would probably have walked this race had he entered it, but I couldn't possibly comment!:-



Great to see the truly historic Tyrrell 001 of John Delane, who finshed 15th. He is seen here being lapped by the battling trio of Dan Collins (Lotus 91), Peter Sowerby (Williams FW07) and David Abbott (Ensign N180) who finished in that order respectively, 7th, 8th and 9th:-

[John Turner]

What a disappointing grid for this race which was, as I understand it for pre 1961 cars, although the programme entry list contained two 1962 cars and one 1965 car! A poor entry of 18 cars was further reduced to 14 when they lined up on the grid, and only 9 finished. No 250Fs, no Dino 246, no Lotus 16 or 18, no BRM P25, and none of the quicker T51/53 Coopers; even Barrie Baxter's Tec Mec which had been entered, and at least would have provided some non British representation failed to appear. It was left to Nigel Bancroft to provide the pace in his, as the programme described it, Cooper Climax. The commentators advised that this was an F2 car re engined with the full F1 2.5 Climax so maybe a T43/51? Anyway he went very well from pole and cleared off to win by nearly 54 seconds from Dan Collins Lotus 21:-


Ian Nuthall's Cooper Alta was an interesting and rare participant but unfortunately was one of those which failed to finish:-


Another unusual car was the HWM Alta of Adrian van der Kroft who finished 8th:-


This very unlikely group enlivened this race, circulating together and swapping places fairly regularly. They finished in the order shown here with the eldest, the Cooper Bristol of Patrick Walker at the front to finish a good 3rd. The 1965 BRM P261 of Andrew Wareing should surely have been quicker, but maybe he was having problems. Finishing 5th, just behind was the 1962 Emeryson Climax (one of two in the race which may well be a first in historic racing?) of Windsor-Price:-

[benjabulle]

[historicmechy]

Ben. do you have any nice pictures of the cars i work on, Arrows A6 of Steve Hartley (1) and Ensign n180 of David Abbott (14) from TGP and the Hesketh 308C of both the above (24). Always like to see nice pics of the cars make work much more rewarding!!

[benjabulle]

Originally Posted by historicmechy

Ben. do you have any nice pictures of the cars i work on, Arrows A6 of Steve Hartley (1) and Ensign n180 of David Abbott (14) from TGP and the Hesketh 308C of both the above (24). Always like to see nice pics of the cars make work much more rewarding!!

[John Turner]

The meeting had been running ahead of schedule but an interminably long Brookland Era demonstration brought it back on time for this, the last race on Saturday:-

The bare statistics; 18 entries recorded in the programme; 13 appeared for qualifying and 12 for the race; a startline incident eliminated 3, and so 8 were left for the restart. At least they all finished. Nigel Greensall had put the Benetton on pole by 4.5 seconds but failed to start due to a loose flywheel. It was left to Klaas Swart, starting from the back, to work his work his way through this small field to win fairly easily from his team mate Pierre Schroeder (both in Ascaris). Here he is seen catching Schroeder very early in the race:-


Greatest interest in the race was provide by Jodie Hemmings attempts to close on and pass Schroeder for second. Unfortunately, on the penultimate lap (?) she hit both brake and throttle pedal heading into Goddards and had to go straight on. She recovered the Jordan well without losing 3rd:-


Colin Stone brought the RAM home 7th:-

[John Turner]

The Sunbeam gets a top up!:-


Dallara:-


The RAM gets all hot and bothered:-


Jodie Hemmings gets interviewed, after which she was seen carrying a tray of drinks and biscuits for the team. A young lady with her feet firmly on the ground:-

[John Turner]

These Classic Team Lotus cars, as far as I know, never emerged all weekend even for static display:-




Volpi Cadillac V16:-

[John Turner]

Final batch of P&P images:-







Poignant moment. Freddie Hunt climbs out of the Hesketh 308C after, at short notice, having been given the opportunity of driving it in the DFV 40th Anniversary demonstration, by entrant Steve Hartley. A great touch, and well done to both:-

[John Turner]

A repeat of Saturday Race 3, it was of course a small grid of just 12 cars. Whilst Nigel Bancroft again sailed off into the distance, the battle for 3rd again raged between Windsor-Price, Wareing and Walker. However this time the positions were the reverse of the Saturday result. Walker in the Cooper Bristol (29) was unable to get passed Wareing in the BRM (26) and they finished 4th and 5th, whereas, this time Windsor-Price got the better of both of them to finish 3rd in the Emeryson. The 4th place battle seen here has just passed the big screen on the outside of Hollywood. A good idea, we could have done with one at the bottom of the Craner Curves, angled in such a way that spectators both infield and on the outside of the track would have been able to view it.


The Walker Special, Rob Walker's attempt to enter F1 with a car of his own manufacture never raced in period, but is now regularly seen and has been getting quicker. Richard Parnell finished 6th:-


Dan Collins again brought his Lotus 21 home 2nd:-


The other Emeryson, that driven by Mark Linstone finished 7th:-

[John Turner]

Starting on the front row alongside Nico Bindels, Abba Kogan seemed likely to be genuine contender for victory given his earlier performance. However, he didn't make a good start and clearly takes time to get into his stride and he finished 3rd albeit with fastest lap again. In fact it was the fast starting Steve Hartley in the Hesketh 308C who took the race to Bindels, even leading him briefly. After Bindels retook the lead Hartley shadowed him closely having several looks up the inside at Goddards but never quite made it. He faded slightly toward the end finishing 2.1 seconds behind Bindels, seen here in his Lotus 77:-


Peter Wuensch finished 4th but well back from the first 3 in his Wolf WR1, despite posting some quick times starting from the back:-


Lorina McLaughlin failed to finish in the McLaren M23:-


7th and last of the classifed finishers was Rick Carlino in the Surtees TS9B:-

[Rob29]

Nice photos John! Re.the photo of Jodie being interviewed by a TV crew,any idea where and when we might see the TV coverage?