Donington farce

I have recently started taking my nephew to see both WSB and BSB rounds and he has enjoyed every one. I personally have been going racing for years and have seen the improvement and the effort to turn the sport into a family event with all the circuits improving facilities.

With JT racing myself and a five friends decided to give the British GP one last go after previous disastrous visits. What a surprise the standards at Donington have not improved at all. Directions around the circuit were virtually nonexistent. We decided to base ourselves around the Starkey’s Bar area. To start with the PA system was not working so there was no information about what was happening throughout the races. The screen instead of being located in the infield facing out so everybody could see was located on our side of the track and could not be seen clearly by most people in the area.

When the GP started no one had a clue what had happened to JT as with no PA and limited viewing we were in the dark. The toilets in this area were also a disgrace broken blocked and knackered.

The best was yet to come over two hours trying to exit the car park. Even the stewards new it was going to be bad as they had obviously all gone home. Where there should have been two maybe three lanes of traffic trying to exit there were at times eight. This was due to dickhead drivers trying to gain an advantage and nobody stopping them. When we did see the traffic marshals the one controlling our exit was at best useless. The vehicles were dictating to her what was going to happen not the other way round.

I suffered a similar fate at Brands Hatch when approx 120,000 turned out to see Edwards Baylis and Hodgson battle it out for the final time and Foggy showed of the FPR bike for the first time. Since then Brands have got their act together and have improved their car park management. After last year’s WSB and seeing JT get a double win we managed to exit the circuit in 40 minutes. Even small circuits like Thruxton work hard to clear traffic ASAP at the end of a normally enjoyable day.

Donington proved that they are only interested in the money and not the spectators. The GP should be moved around to allow Brands and Silverstone a chance to showcase their ability to hold this kind of event. This might give Donington the kick it needs and stop taking advantage of the paying public.