Donington Historic Festival 2011

About the Event

The inaugural Donington Historic Festival was held 30 April to 1 May, 2011 at Donington Park near Castle Donington in Leicestershire, England.

More than 12,000 people and two days of non-stop sunshine greeted the historic racing cars out on track. The Donington Historic Festival 2011 saw more than 300 vintage racing cars battling it out in a packed programme of vintage races that included: single-seaters to Touring Cars; pre-War racers to Group C; Astons, Ferraris, Jaguars and Maseratis to Listers, Lolas and Bentleys; and demonstrations of Group B rally cars and historic karts.

This was the first time we’d run the Festival, so we couldn’t be absolutely certain how it would turn out, said event organiser Duncan Wiltshire, but it exceeded our most optimistic expectations in every way: the spectators, the weather, the revitalised circuit, but above all the racing.

We saw huge grids of some of the best historic cars in Europe, with racing that was incredibly close and unbelievably exciting. The advantage of Donington, of course, is that it’s such a spectacular circuit for watching the action: from the restructured infield you have a fabulous view of the twists, turns and gradients. There are few places in Europe which offer such a superb ‘amphitheatre’ from which to watch a race, continued Wiltshire.

Most liked pictures of the event