Donington Historic Festival

[Mike Bell]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

Mike, if you click on Motorsport Results, it will bring up a page that links to the race results, and there is a PDF link to bring up the qualifying data.

Forgot to look for that, thanks Mike.

[chunterer]

Decent turn out for the TCCT and a few late entrants it seems judging by the radio app I used for commentary today and those results back that up.

Good to read Fluxie was out in Martini Trophy!

[dikko]

Some racing was quite excellent and exciting. A terrific and well turned out collection of car history battling it out like they really meant it.

If only someone told the 'Commentators'.................... banale to the point of annoying.......it was as if they hadn't any windows where they were.

[Mike Bell]

I gather that Christopher Tate and Castle Donington got together and organised a race car cavalcade into the village (town?) centre last night, with over 30 cars going through all the red lights with police escort. Then all parked up and mayoral blessing..... Great initiative, if anyone has any pics would be good to see them on here!

[grantp]

Originally Posted by Mike Bell

I gather that Christopher Tate and Castle Donington got together and organised a race car cavalcade into the village (town?) centre last night, with over 30 cars going through all the red lights with police escort. Then all parked up and mayoral blessing..... Great initiative, if anyone has any pics would be good to see them on here!

Did they? Very French.

Sadly I had not seen any information about that so I was sitting at home a few minutes walk away.

Don't think we have a mayor though the Parish Council, en masse, probably count.

[brands]

Some lovely tin on track today, several good races, especially the last. Just a shame the infield is still a tip and it's now even worse to view from.

[grantp]

Originally Posted by dikko

Some racing was quite excellent and exciting. A terrific and well turned out collection of car history battling it out like they really meant it.

If only someone told the 'Commentators'.................... banale to the point of annoying.......it was as if they hadn't any windows where they were.

I followed the live timing when I could - it was sometimes a tad erratic.

I tuned in to the commentary via the recently introduced FM radio. The Maserati race "on track" period with the Live Timing seemed to have lost a few runners so I thought I would check the commentary to see what was happening. I think the 'lost' cars must have been at the exit end of the pit lane and therefore not passed the timing point on the way out of the pits. Or something like that.


By half way through lap 3 I was getting so annoyed with it that I turned it off. A shame because the sound quality was really very good.

The slightly interesting background information about the cars would probably have been absolutely fine whilst they were sitting on a grid. But they didn't sit on a grid much and there seemed to be quite a bit of race action not covered as the "history" was delivered. For example Mr. Knopfler's 300s was not mentioned once even though he retired after 2 laps. There were only 13 (?) cars out ffs. To have one or two drop out early was surely worth a mention?

[grantp]

Originally Posted by brands

Some lovely tin on track today, several good races, especially the last. Just a shame the infield is still a tip and it's now even worse to view from.

I think the winter delayed the infield plans - perhaps not least getting hold of all the material they need to remake the infield.

When you say "even worse to view from" you echo some of my general concerns - but in what way do you mean 'even worse'?

[brands]

Originally Posted by grantp

I think the winter delayed the infield plans - perhaps not least getting hold of all the material they need to remake the infield.

When you say "even worse to view from" you echo some of my general concerns - but in what way do you mean 'even worse'?

Viewing from the grass slope on the inside of the Craners you used to be able to see the track from the exit of Redgate to McLeans. Where they have built up and moulded the slope from that grass slope towards McLeans you now lose sight of the cars as they exit the Old Hairpin and only catch them again as they enter McLeans. Starkey's bridge and the following straight are now out of sight.

[andy97]

Originally Posted by Mike Bell

I gather that Christopher Tate and Castle Donington got together and organised a race car cavalcade into the village (town?) centre last night, with over 30 cars going through all the red lights with police escort. Then all parked up and mayoral blessing..... Great initiative, if anyone has any pics would be good to see them on here!

I didn't see it unfortunately as I was on my way to the Quattro owners club annual dinner nearby but it definitely happened and the Mai street was very busy. Even my non petrol head friends enjoyed the spectacle and atmosphere.

[Mike Bell]

I assumed the cavalcade would be 'taxed and MOTd' cars only but apparently there was no such stipulation. It did a couple of tours around a set route before parking up in the centre. Grant, my spies assumed that it was the Mayor speaking, but maybe the person concerned gave that impression. Chairman of the Parish Council, perhaps!

Shame about the commentary, but not for me to dis or even diss anyone as I don't know who they were and wasn't there. There are very few historic race commentators that really know their subject, but it can make a huge difference.....

[grantp]

Originally Posted by Mike Bell

Shame about the commentary, but not for me to dis or even diss anyone as I don't know who they were and wasn't there. There are very few historic race commentators that really know their subject, but it can make a huge difference.....

True. And far be it from me to pretend to have any knowledge worth repeating. But ... it's a balance.

I tuned it to the last 3/4s of the last race today and found that what was on offer largely added to the information from the Live Timing screen. It helped that the Live timing was showing the correct car information as well.

I have to say I was rather impressed by "Henry" the second commentator working the pits. Who was this? Henry Mann? I have no idea but he handled things well, kept the questions pertinent and even relevant and seemed to have a good rapport with the competitors. Plus a good microphone voice .... In fact a great job all round. Bravo.

I thought the pairing showed reasonable potential and introduced some natural balance that seemed to be absent on Saturday. Much more enjoyable.

It may just be that you can't easily operate solo in such a situation when there is so much potentially interesting information to pass on to a fairly knowledgeable audience.

[dwh43scale]

Originally Posted by dikko

Some racing was quite excellent and exciting. A terrific and well turned out collection of car history battling it out like they really meant it.

If only someone told the 'Commentators'.................... banale to the point of annoying.......it was as if they hadn't any windows where they were.

Given that they appeared to be operating from the usual place with little or no view of the bottom end of the circuit, one suspects they may have been at something of a dis-advantage.

[grantp]

Originally Posted by dwh43scale

Given that they appeared to be operating from the usual place with little or no view of the bottom end of the circuit, one suspects they may have been at something of a dis-advantage.

There is that.

Maybe they could get the same cemera feed as race control as a backup?

[Mike Bell]

Interesting to see DNFs in several races from some well known cars and driver combos. Hopefully the weekly read will have some details....

[kipper]

Originally Posted by grantp

I have to say I was rather impressed by "Henry" the second commentator working the pits. Who was this? natural balance that seemed to be absent on Saturday.

I think it was Henry Hope-Frost.

[chunterer]

The main comnentator, Russell Douglas has been doing Donington events for years he is a nice and knowledgeable bloke but can stray a bit.
The silly thing for me was when there was a cut to the girl doing general event announcements as races were starting!

[grantp]

Originally Posted by chunterer

The main comnentator, Russell Douglas has been doing Donington events for years he is a nice and knowledgeable bloke but can stray a bit.
The silly thing for me was when there was a cut to the girl doing general event announcements as races were starting!

I think that the commentary for something quite reasonably promoted as a major event probably needs to be more polished and rounded - but it's early days.

What may be acceptable on an erratic PA system for a sparsely attended club meeting did not come across so well via the FM broadcast. The silences and interesting but perhaps mis-timed snippets of historical information just did not work for me.

A team of commentators well prepared for working with each other would be more impressive for flagship events. Russell seemed to have been abandoned to work solo at certain times. A limited view of the circuit (additional viewing problems caused by the new infield work?) one might guess a slightly uninformative information screen might be additional challenges?

[retrognome]

I enjoyed the weekend, especially the final 90 min epic between the two Cobras, almost a dead heat between Hadfield and Bryant.Images copyright www.retro-speed.co.uk

[The Fat Clerk]

Get Ian Sowman in to commentate.

[FastDB2s]

Or / and Peter Snowdon, he was in at least one race over the weekend mind.

[brands]

A few shots from Sunday. All from the same area as we were parked in the infield..

Touring cars and Wotecote trophy

[brands]

Pre War sportcars and Maserati Centenary trophy

[brands]

Masters historic sport cars and the mass ranks of the U2TCs

[percy]

I'm guessing from the helmet that this is Chigley?