Donington Park is home to many forms of entertainment, and although it may be most famous for its circuit and the home of many impressive rock concerts, it has held rally events in the past, and after a hiatus of several years, this form of motorsport returned in late 2015 as the Dukeries Rally returned to the Leicestershire circuit. Today sees the Donington Rally, as a huge range of cars take to the track.
There are a few changes to what you might expect at Donington; the cars got he opposite direction to the normal running there, which takes longer to get used to than you might expect. Of course, being a rally, the event uses more than just the track, so the various stages see the cars coming off the track and through the woods of the in field before rejoining the track. As this is the first race event of 2016 at Donington, visitors will also spot some other changes over what they may have seen in recent years, with the old and unused hospitality complex now removed, and many improvements around the track. One of my favourites was the addition of a wood fired pizza stand. Recommended!
The large field meant that much of the paddock car park was being used as garage space for the competitors as well as the pits. It was an impressive set up, given that one of the other exciting new developments at Donington, the arrival of BookATrack with their Caterham showroom beside the Formula E headquarters, opened yesterday, meaning that the rally team had to wait until the end of the day before setting up for today’s event. A very impressive job!
It’s great to see even more racing at Donington, and given the size of a crowd for an inclement Sunday morning, I would expect to see more rally events there. Here are a few photos from today.
