The Donington Park racing circuit has been handed back to the Wheatcroft Family after the administrators of the defunct Donington Ventures Leisure Ltd failed to find a buyer for the 150-year lease, which was taken out in 2007. DVLL also had a 17-year contract to host the British Grand Prix, but this too is now worthless as the race will now stay at Silverstone. Donington’s future remains in considerable doubt at the moment, although it is likely that someone will take overt he circuit and run it as a business, albeit at a rather lower level than it has been in recent years. Without grand ambitions of F1 the circuit can be a successful business, although repairing the damage done by DVLL will take some investment.
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joeblogsf1 
(You’re meant to be having a break Joe, for goodness sake)
It would be nice to think that Bernie might feel some degree (i.e. 99%) responsible for getting Donington trashed, and lend a hand. Not seeing Gillett coming with a revolving light on his head – this must be the legendary BE business acumen at work again. In reality I know it’s as likely he’ll help as say sorry.
My heavy hints got me a copy of The Grand Prix Saboteurs as a present yesterday, and I’m already enjoying it – great reading!
Enjoy the ‘break’.
> Bernie might feel some degree (i.e. 99%)
> responsible for getting Donington trashed
How trashed? You mean financial, or environmental damage, or soemthing else?
From Stateside, it seemed all the Joe-caliber F1 journalists were NOT looking forward to Donnington F1, because access to the venue was so horrible. I don’t know the details and am looking forward to your opinions…..
I still kind of admire Bernie. But it’s the kind of admiration that rhymes with “bitter hatred” somehow! 🙂
We gotta remember, this is a business. These guys aren’t holding races to be nice to people who enjoy them, they’re trying make money.
I thought this kind of madness that has been done to Donington is only possible in Hungary and I’m not happy to realise that I was wrong. This is outrageous to see the circuit destroyed and failed to make it usable again. Sad.
It would be a shame if we never see racing cars and bikes performing once again at Donington. I thought F1 would have been great at Donington; perhaps they went for F1 to quickly?
It may have been more prudent to have built the track up to F1 standards over a few years and not went for an exclusive time pressured deal. Sharing the race with Silverstone in alternate years may have be a good idea too.
We have lost some of the best tracks for wheel to wheel racing in recent year. I miss the San Marino, Austrian and Canadian (it’s coming back thank god) grand prix circuits.
Do you miss any circuits Joe?
What a sad end to a still born business proposition ! 😦 I hope it ends up in the hands of credible owners once more.
Crid – physical and financial – by ‘trashed’ I simply meant that various parts of the track and infrastucture were torn up or knocked down, leaving it, reportedly, in a worse state than pre-Gillett. So anyone who looks at getting it running again is faced with a bill for reinstating things.
I realise that BE didn’t actually ‘do’ anything – it depends on whether you think a man with his experience might have thought better of dangling a carrot in front of Gillett. Or should he take the view that, as long as his wallet stands the tiniest chance of benifitting and no chance of suffering, it’s a reasonable way to behave?
@ Crid
As Peter F says, physically the place has been trashed, it’s far from destroyed but the place needs a lot of work now, even more then in needed pre-Gillett…
I have driven both Silverstone and Donington and am extreemly pleased that Donington will not be sacrificed the way Silverstone has at the “high alter” of F1. Driving on Silverstone is like driving on an empty airport car park.
I also saw the 1993 European GP Friday practice, that looked awsome and they didn’t have to ruin the track.
As a marshal for the last 20 years I have attended many GPs at both Silverstone and the 1993 Donington one. The race at Donington was awesome and it was a great shame that the terrible weather meant it was a financial disaster for Tom Wheatcroft. I would love to see F1 cars at Donington again, the new layout proposed looked really exciting.
When I heard (during the 2008 GP at Silverstone) that Donington would hold the race from 2010 I discussed this with various other marshals who knew both circuits. It was almost universally agreed that the idea of a GP at Donington was wonderful but the timescale was totally unrealistic. I marshalled meetings at Donington later in 2008 and early in 2009, each time becoming more and more convinced that the circuit could not possibly be completed in time as no significant work had been started as late as April 2009. Several contributors to the 10-tenths forum, who are in the building / property management trade gave detailed technical explanations as to why it wasn’t going to happen in time for 2010.
It has been absolutely no surprise to most UK marshals that it fell through – though a cause of much regret for many, myself included. The circuit is physically damaged and will take money to repair before it can even be used for track-days, let alone meetings. Almost all UK motorsports clubs have published their 2010 calendars and very few have Donington as a venue, those that do have it as provisional. As a result, even if money is found quickly to repair the circuit it will be too late to attract drivers or marshals for any meetings there this year. Therefore any money will have to be spent with no chance of any income until 2011 at the earliest – not an attractive proposition for the likes of BARC, Jonathan Palmer, or anyone else with money and ability.
Joe – do you see any current motorsport organisation being interested or do we have to hope for some unknown Knight in shining armour to appear?