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Donington Park is a site near Castle Donington in North West Leicestershire, England, owned by Donington Ventures Leisure Ltd. It is used as a motor racing track, and for music festivals.
[edit] Motor Racing
Donington Park. Showing Spitfire Sculpture and track
(2005)
The original Donington track was opened in 1931, and initially used for motorcycle races. In 1935 it saw Richard Shuttleworth win the Donington Grand Prix in an Alfa Romeo P3, in the 1937 British Grand Prix and 1938 British Grand Prix, the race winners were respectively Bernd Rosemeyer and Tazio Nuvolari, both in Auto Union 'Silver Arrows'.
The circuit was closed in 1939 due to World War 2, when it became a military vehicle depot. In the early 1970s the circuit was bought by Tom Wheatcroft, who funded the rebuilding of the track, which was re-opened May 27, 1977. The first postwar race meeting was organised by the Nottingham Sports Car Club, but that nearly didn't happen, as the local ramblers tried to assert their rights to retain access to footpaths at the 11th hour. The meeting went ahead as a "Motor Trial", a legal loophole that curtailed the use of single seater racing cars for that opening meeting.
The NSCC continued to run race meetings at Donington until the Donington Racing Club was formed and a licence to run race meetings obtained.
The Melbourne Loop was built in 1985 to increase the lap distance to 2.5 miles (4.02 km) and allow the track to host Grand Prix motorcycle races - at 1.957 miles (3.149 km) without the loop, the circuit was deemed too short.
In recent times Donington has held meetings of the British Touring Car Championship and British Superbikes and as well as the 1993 F1 European Grand Prix. This race was won by the late Ayrton Senna, and was described by AtlasF1 as the 'Drive of the Decade' [1]. There is a memorial to Senna in the grounds of the racetrack, outside a shop selling motorsports memorabilia.
Other events taking place at the track include the World Series by Renault and the Great and British Motorsport Festival. On 26 August 2007 the circuit hosted the British Motocross Grand Prix, with a purpose-built motocross circuit being built on the infield of the road circuit [2].
World Series by Renault at Donington Park's Melbourne Hairpin in 2005.
In 2007 the track was sold to Donington Ventures Leisure Ltd.[3]
The track is also the location of a museum, the Donington Grand Prix Collection. This opened in 1973, and is the largest collection of Grand Prix cars anywhere in the world.
[edit] Music Festivals
Donington Park has a great pedigree of holding rock concerts and festivals, having played host to the Monsters of Rock concerts from the early 80s to mid 90s, when groups such as AC/DC, Metallica - who have each headlined three times - and Iron Maiden - who have headlined a record four times - performed there. More recently, it has played host to Stereophonics' A Day At The Races event in 2001, Ozzfest in 2002 and Download Festival in 2003, headlined by Iron Maiden and Audioslave, who were late replacements for Limp Bizkit, who pulled out of the festival. Download was held again in 2004, when Metallica returned to Donington, accompanied by a star-studded lineup including Slipknot, KoЯn, Linkin Park, Slayer and a number of other high profile rock bands. The 2005 Download festival was held in June, featuring Black Sabbath as well as System of a Down, Feeder and Velvet Revolver. In 2006, Tool, Metallica and Guns N' Roses headlined, and in 2007, My Chemical Romance, Linkin Park and Iron Maiden headlined on June 8th, 9th and 10th 2007. Download 2008 is currently scheduled to be held here from the 13th-15th June, with headliners including Kiss, The Offspring and Lostprophets.
Donington Park. Dunlop Bridge
(2006)
[edit] Location
The location of the circuit has been disputed for years. Whilst lying within the traditional borders of Leicestershire, south of the River Trent, its postal address uses a Derbyshire postcode - and the East Midlands Airport just a mile down the road was once controversially named "Nottingham" East Midlands' Airport in 2005.
The facility is also used to host a weekly Sunday market.
Donington Park is located just off the M1 and is very close to East Midlands Airport, and aircraft taking off fly directly over the circuit at low altitude, as can been seen from this map. .
[edit] Trivia
- The Donington Park track has been simulated and can be driven in several racing simulations, like Spirit of Speed 1937 (the 1937 version of the track is featured, as the name suggests), Sports Car GT, Le Mans 24 Hours, ToCA Touring Cars, ToCA 2 Touring Cars, ToCA Race Driver, ToCA Race Driver 2, TOCA Race Driver 3, GTR, GTR2, GT Legends, F1 Challenge '99-'02, MotoGP 3, rFactor, SBK-07, and Racedriver GRID.
- The hill approaching Craner Curves (beginning just after Hollywood corner) is steeper than it appears and it is possible to reach speeds in excess of 40 mph (64 km/h) using only a bicycle.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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Coordinates: 52°49′50″N, 1°22′31″W
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