is a site near
Castle Donington in
North West Leicestershire ,
United Kingdom , owned by Donington Ventures Leisure Ltd. It is used as a motor racing track, and for music festivals.
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 27th 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.
In recent times it has held meetings of the
British Touring Car Championship ,
British Superbike s and
MotoGP as well as, most famously, the
1993 European Grand Prix . This race was won by the late
Ayrton Senna , and was described by
AtlasF1 as the 'Drive of the Decade'
{Link without Title} . 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
1.
in 2005.]]In 2007 the track was sold to
Donington Ventures Leisure Ltd. 2
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.
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.
The circuit is located in the county of Leicestershire, however, its
Post Code is actually a
Derbyshire code (DE74 2RP).
The facility is also host to 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.
- The Donington Park track has been simulated and can be 'driven' in several pc 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 Diver 3, GTR, GTR2, GT Legends, F1 Challenge 99-02, MotoGP 3, RFactor , and SBK-07 .
- The Melbourne Loop was built in 1985 to increase the lap distance to 2.5 miles and allow the track to host Grand Prix motorcycle races - at 1.957 miles without the loop the circuit was deemed too short.
- The hill approaching craner curves (beginning just after the first corner) is steeper than it appears and it is possible to reach speeds in excess of 40 mph using only a bicycle.
