What chance of them being ready for F1?
I had a long chat with a well know motor sport journalist about this situation this afternoon.
For those that do not know the reason that the MSA have refused to issue a track licence is the new dual-carriageway tunnel between McLeans and Coppice (basically the old one made a lot bigger ready for the construction team for the F1 party) SEE HERE has left a smaller run off area and an ‘elephant trap’ on both sides of the track, i.e. if you go off there you could easily end up in the tunnel entrance or exit, both of which are about a 30feet cube with vertical stressed concrete steel rod strengtheners sticking up from the bottom!(and which will probably become the base of the new bridge supports).
The MSA have refused a track licence so far (I think this will not be a problem once the F1 track is complete and bthe tunnel replaced by a bridge - the tunnel is for construction.)
I’m not sure how much of the infield is left for spectators - it is becoming one big building site and certainly the VSCC has been told that there will be very litle of the infield available for our meeting in September.
750MC held a race meeting last Saturday and HSCC last Sunday. Donington had been granted a temporary track licence for the weekend but it stipulated NO OVERTAKING ALLOWED between McLeans and Coppice. In the event the stewards on the day extended the no overtaking zone back towards Starkey’s and the run up to Macleans, effectively neutralisung a large part of the overtaking zone of the circuit.
MSV are, of course, headed by a clever businessman who has turned MSV venues into ‘gardens of England’ that are well presented and very usable by organising clubs. Donington has some learning to do in this respect and this cancellation is bound to end up in the courts.
One of the partners (Lee Gill) has pulled out and there is a big row about his share holdings I believe. This fuels the worry that Donington simply don’t have the money to put this right in the short term. There are also rumours that Donington Park Ventures (the operating company that Gill left and which is now in the hands of Simon Gillet, his former partner) owes the owner (Tom Wheatcroft) quite a lot of rent on the 150 year lease but this has been denied. In February, Autosport reported that Max Mosley has said that the FIA would be willing to help keep the British Grand Prix on the Formula One calendar if the national governing body (the MSA) approached it in the event of problems with Donington Park’s rebuild.
It’s all very worrying for so many Clubs and F1 enthusists so everybody please pray that it all gets sorted out very soon otherwise…
Mike how about the Track Day on the 17th???
Clive,
The trackday is still on.
Thanks Mark…See you there ??
Cheers Clive
I’ll probably be there at some point but no Exige, forgot the MOT was running out and can’t get it done in time.
Also may be picking up my normal car from the accident repair place, not been a good few weeks.
Also for everyone, the race meet will now take place at Silverstone on the Sunday.