Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

The future of Donington Park looks brighter following yesterday’s announcement that plans are in motion for the circuit to re-open this summer. The news has been greeted with a collective sigh of relief within the sport as many of us had begun to fear we were about to lose this much-loved race track for a second time – and this time, probably forever.

The new hope is thanks to Kevin Wheatcroft, son of Donington’s late, great owner Tom Wheatcroft. How sad it was that Tom should be taken last year just as it had become clear that Simon Gillett’s ridiculously optimistic plan to bring the British Grand Prix to the track had crumbled, leaving the place a building site unfit for anything. It was feared that the cost of repairing the damage would be a fatal blow to Donington Park’s future.

Until yesterday. Plans and the cost of the repair work are being finalised by project advisors, led by ex-Aggregate Industries director Philip Barltrop and Duncan Green of Pick Everard Consulting Engineers, who have met with the Motor Sport Associations’s John Symes to gain his approval. Subject to obtaining the necessary racing licences, the team is “confident” that the track will re-open in August.

Kevin Wheatcroft has been hoping to attract a new leaseholder to take over the circuit, with the BARC and Jonathan Palmer’s MotorSport Vision organisation both touted as potential candidates. Between them the BARC and MSV already run eight British race circuits. But without a deal confirmed, it appears Wheatcroft is taking on the task himself, at least in the short term – a decision for which he should be commended.

Hot on the heels of Wheatcroft’s announcement, the Masters Historic Racing organisation declared its intention to hold the first race meeting at the circuit following its re-opening. Its Festival meeting, which had originally been planned for June, will now be scheduled – and expanded to three days – for September 3-5. Special features will include an ‘Into the Dusk’ endurance race on the Saturday evening, plus demonstration runs of cars and motorcycles from the Donington Collection.

It was Tom Wheatcroft’s dream back in the 1970s to re-open the old pre-war Grand Prix track, and he achieved his life’s ambition in 1977. Now it appears that, thanks to his son, his beloved circuit will not die with him.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

After the disastrous attempt to host the British Grand Prix at Donington in 2010, the circuit has been left a shadow of its former self. The last owner, Donington Ventures Leisure Limited, went ahead with ambitious plans to revamp the circuit before the company went into administration last November, leaving Donington Park without even the original functioning race track. To restore it to how it was just under two years ago is going to cost a minimum of £600,000.

For all motor sport enthusiasts this is sad news. However, there is light at the end of what has been a particularly dark tunnel: the control of Donington has been passed back to the Wheatcroft family. As we speak Kevin Wheatcroft, son of late circuit revivalist Tom, is doing everything he can to reopen it.

If you’re looking to invest in and save one of Britain’s best-loved circuits then now is surely the time. But if you’re not quite in the right financial situation then a motor sport enthusiast from Oxford by the name of Lee Coombs has come up with an alternative idea.

“I didn’t have any contacts, I don’t have any financial clout, but I’m a real enthusiast of Donington Park and historic racing in particular,” he says. “I found myself going on the internet every five minutes and reading about Donington and, quite frankly, depressing myself.

“I thought, ‘what can I do?’ I’m a Lotus owner and so contacted the forum and said ‘why don’t we drive up there and just show whoever owns the track that repairing it is a viable option’. So that’s what we’re doing. I didn’t realise it was going to take off like it has…”

The plan is to drive to Donington Park on March 7 and so far Coombs has managed to recruit nearly 700 people for the event through his new website (www.savedonington.co.uk) and various forums.

A hoard of spectators gather to see the top three finishers at the end of the 1938 Donington Grand Prix

The Wheatcroft family has had a torrid time of late and we urge you to go to Donington to show them your support on March 7. It’s not a protest, but merely a gathering of like-minded people trying to save one of Britain’s great circuits. Tom would have been proud.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine