Donington Park fails track inspection

That place has benn nothing but mis-managed from the day that the current Operators took over it.

The amount of times we've mailed them re jobs, events etc and never got any reply.

We live in the village and are very pro- the track but recently we've been pissed off at how Mr Gillet & Co have managed it.

We were all wondering why it was taking them forever to actually stat digging up the Foggy Esses and of course now it seems they kinda knew big trouble lay ahead what with big debts and inadequate featutes.

Personally, I hope to God they loose their operator's licece and then jst maybe someone else can take over and start making the venue what it should be.

I wonder what the four areas they failed on are.

Was it inadequate for the F1 cars? Or are we talking about contingency plans in case of fire, explosions etc?

The only downside to all this is that it may have a direct effect on the Haslam Race School which would be very sad indeed.

Posted: 08/05/2009 at 16:17

..And laughably, if you check out their website and click on the link for the 'demonstration' of the 'new F1 track',  here....

http://www.donington-park.co.uk/formula-one

.... the link is dead lol

What a fucking utter wanker that Gillet is, snivelling weasel buttfuck tosser.

Posted: 08/05/2009 at 16:36

Posted: 12/05/2009 at 14:44

Posted: 12/05/2009 at 15:32

Posted: 12/05/2009 at 15:54

I think it IS. At THAT level of operations, they should know what is the minimum standard for such venues.

A run-off area for F1 cars being somewhere in the region of 20MTRS short is hardly minor; tell that to the driver who slides out at McCleans and ends up in the ice cream van lol

If they don't know what they're doing, get out of Dodge.

I see the Race For Life is taking place there soon;lots of ladies jogging in aid of cancer research. I can imagine all the marshalls waving their yellow flags and someone tripping and falling over the ditch ha ha!!

Posted: 12/05/2009 at 18:16

The link of the video 'demonstration' works for me, and it's interesting to watch from a bike rider point of view. Here's the direct link:

http://www.donington-park.co.uk/formula-one/track-simulation

I can't comment on the management, I've always enjoyed track days and events I've been to there, even if facilities don't bear any comparison to Silverstone. Though for the MotoGP I tend to park a couple of miles away and walk to the circuit. Sorry if that annoys any locals!

Regarding changes to the circuit, I suppose losing Gerrards is no big deal, at least the only real left-hander (Craner and Schwantz are faster, sweeping bends, not big changes of direction, and Foggy Esses has always been a bit crap) on the track gets replaced by a frightening-looking, fast, down and uphill left-hander and an interesting-looking uphill right, back on to the old start/finish straight. Shame about Coppice, it's one of my favourite corners for some reason, I hope the new version is good. Going to be scary braking at the end of that loooong straight for the Melbourne loop - wouldn't like to get it wrong! It's Donington's changes in elevation and camber that give it so much of it's character, which Silverstone and Rockingham don't really have. It's why Brands and Cadwell are favourites of mine, too.

Here's the 'master_plan' pdf overlaid on google map's satellite photo I did for an earlier Donington thread so you can see where it's changing. Click for a bigger version.

Posted: 13/05/2009 at 11:08

Gerrards? You mean Goddards. I didn't think they were touching from Goddards all the way round to the Esses.

And I thought the Coppice turn was staying put, it's just that they were adding new facilities inside that turn to marry up with the tunel so as to accomodate the bigger F1 cars and the circus of trucks that come with them, they were keeping the current garages for bikes etc.

Posted: 13/05/2009 at 18:22

And not to belittle your post Ginjain but here's a much better, 1st person perspective of what will surely make you cum in ya pants lol

That last climbing, bling right hander onto the start/finish is gonna be a whopper, a kinda bigger Coppice I hope.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7886964.stm

And yeah, that long fast straight into Melbourne is gonna make those brakes sizzle and forks work harder than a rapist on the chain gang lol

Having said all that, watch Mr Gillet screw it all up, we'll end up with a hamster wheel to race around with lots of Kellys and McNicholas labourers leaning on their shovels watching us lol

Posted: 13/05/2009 at 18:27

it aint gonna happen people

the whole project has been a scam and the company have no money

debts up to ying yang and at the moment no permit to even hold races two or four wheeled

the 4 minor HS issues are being played down

the main one concerns the tunnel which is now too close to the track sor safety

BSB are checking the mods today but its looking like the next big meet and the Moto gp will be axed 

Posted: 15/05/2009 at 07:50

Posted: 16/05/2009 at 11:50