Donnington Testing

I went testing with my Son in Law at Donnington yesterday, with his car, not mine. Very busy and everybody behaving both on track and elsewhere else, very conscious of the necessary regulations. My role, Tea Boy. I think this was one of the first such events after easing of restrictions.

Interesting mix of cars in his session, about 30 cars per session, from Lotus Cortina, to 1960/70's brutal Lola's, including lots of very expensive historic Aston Martins and Jaguar models, original Lightweight 'E' types, 'D' type (1RRW) and other GT versions, and even parked up an original XK SS. But alas no Lancia versions at all. Sessions lasted all day, with each of 5 sections having 4 sessions each, so busy busy.

As an aside, what was very noticeable was the lack of Aircraft approaching East Midlands, only 4 all day, and at least one of those freight.!!

Robin.

Sounds like there were some interesting cars there. How did they all cope with the heat?

What car does your Son in law have?

Have a friend who works in ATC at EMA and they have increase freight flights a lot since the pandemic. Sure she said they were something like the busiest airport across the whole of Europe at one point - obviously not from passenger flights!

Liegh, yes, I some times have a look at the Flightradar App and the air traffic in and out overnight is phenomenal, and what the pandemic has shown up is the vast amount of air freight that is ongoing at any time as in the past it tended to get lost amongst the other traffic, also the large range of Air Freight operators that exist.

My Son in laws car was originally constructed by Garry Gun to contest the Sports 2000, a championship which he won in 2009. It has had a number of mods since purchase but is still power by a 2ltr Durotec engine. He normally laps Donnington in the 1.04 and 5s but the best yesterday with a lot of traffic was mid 1.06s, and was first time out since last September. He builds and maintains it himself, including the engine.

You ask how they coped with the heat, the cars surprisingly well, although a little over hot obviously, it was more the drivers that were feeling the heat!!!.

Seems when there is high pressure weather around the flight route changes slightly can comes closer to our place. Not unusual to hear flights coming over at 1am. Not loud though, just noticeable.

1:04 sounds like a decent pace. Only ever been round Donnington GP circuit with a camera in a car so that's the only ref I have for times. Think it was about 1:25 or 1:27 for the full GP circuit. Supercharged Honda Type R converted Elise. I'm no driving god!

Just googled the Sports 2000 champs, never heard of it before. Nice looking cars. Like little Can-Ams.

Did a track eve one August in the Elise in 30 degrees. Wasn't easy. As you say, car coped great, it was me that was flagging..... By the end of the night the fuel had got so hot my fuel pump (Bosch 044 which are known to be noisy) was making some awful sounds. On the way home a massive thunderstorm broke, I put the wiper on to full speed and then blade fell off! That's was an interesting few seconds until I could pull over in pub car park :rolleyes: