Donington Park

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Donington Park Circuit

Location	North West Leicestershire, England, United Kingdom
Time Zone	GMT
Major events	British Touring Car Championship, British F3, British Superbikes, World Superbike, MotoGP
Circuit length	4.023 kilometres (2.5 miles)
Turns	12
Lap record	1'18.029 min. 185.608 km/h. (Ayrton Senna, McLaren, 1993)

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.

Contents 1 Motor Racing 2 Music Festivals 3 Location 4 Trivia 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Motor Racing

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 in 1977.

In recent times it has held meetings of the British Touring Car Championship, British Superbikes 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' [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.

In 2007 the track was sold to Donington Ventures Leisure Ltd.^[1]

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 and Iron Maiden - who have each headlined three 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 will headline on June 8th, 9th and 10th 2007.

The current Google Maps satellite image was taken in the days preceding one of these festivals.

[edit] Location

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.

[edit] Trivia

• 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, GTR 2 and F1 Challenge 99-02.

• The loop at the base of the circuit was added so that the track was eligible to host the MotoGP race - without the loop it was simply too short. The loop is a constant source of criticism as many claim it takes out some of the "flowing" nature of the track.

• 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.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official Donington Park website
• Satellite picture by Google Maps

Coordinates: 52°49′50″N, 1°22′31″W

British motor racing circuits
Anglesey - Brands Hatch - Cadwell Park - Castle Combe - Croft - Donington Park - Goodwood - Knockhill - Lydden - Mallory Park - Oulton Park - Pembrey - Rockingham - Silverstone - Snetterton - Thruxton