My fears for Donington have nothing to do with the Grand Prix. Historic racing is what’s under threat

It’s out in the open now. The tragedy of Donington seems to be unfolding precisely as some of us feared.
At first, to give the 2010 GP a fair chance and out of loyalty to British motor racing in general, we hid our conviction that it won’t happen at Donington next year.

Were I a gambling man, I’d have slipped quietly into a bookmaker’s back in April and placed a bet that there will be a 2010 British GP, and that it will be held at Silverstone. This is its proper home and I’m not saying that as a loyal BRDC member; it’s a blatantly obvious fact. Even without all the talk of hard times and cost-cutting in F1, there has to be something wrong with an F1 circus that regards Silverstone’s present paddock and pits garages as inadequate. What do they want? Marble floors and gold-plated taps in the bogs?

My fears for Donington, which grow stronger by the day, have nothing to do with the Grand Prix. That’s not the important issue any more. When Tom Wheatcoft restored Donington Park circuit, opening it in 1977, he provided us with a magnificent track for historic racing of all kinds. That is what’s under threat now.

Seemingly disastrously underfunded, the promoters of this Donington GP might pull the place apart and leave a wrecked building site in their wake. In that state, no racing of any kind could be held there. Could anybody then put it back to what we’ve known, and loved racing on, for the past 32 years?

We can speak now and we have a bus conductor to thank for that. At the media preview day for this year’s Silverstone Classic (don’t miss it at the end of July – it’s shaping up to be better than ever), some of us got a ride round the Grand Prix circuit in the very first Routemaster double decker to go into service back in 1956. I took my favourite place by the window in the rearmost seat upstairs. I almost looked for my school satchel.

Soon, the conductor came round. Wearing the proper peaked hat, grey over-jacket and LT numbered badge, he called out: ‘Tickets, please!’ It was none other than Murray Walker, playing Bob Grant’s rôle of Jack Harper in On The Buses – so I whipped out my HMG official card and handed it to him. Murray took it, inspected it closely – and handed it back with a friendly, mystified smile. I was impressed: it does suggest solid wealth when a man of 85 can’t recognise a genuine Bus Pass.

During our Routemaster ride round the Silverstone GP circuit, Murray and Jackie Oliver gave a joint commentary on their memories of great events there. Somewhere near Chapel Curve, Murray dropped the bombshell by saying outright that it seems most unlikely that Donington Park will be ready in time to host next year’s British GP. Forthright comment about Donington’s woes has been growing on website chatrooms but Murray is the first person to have the balls to suggest to 56 members of the press that the East Midlands 2010 GP is already doomed.

Historic racing has started to suffer there. With piles of earth dumped near some of the corners, a proper track licence was not granted early in the season. Some meetings did go ahead but only with permanent yellow flags being waved on much of the circuit to prevent overtaking at the points deemed to be dangerous. That’s no way to go motor racing.

The Masters big historic weekend in May got the go-ahead when a track licence was issued a couple of days before that well-run event – but only after much frantic last-minute earth-moving work. Was it the last of its kind?

A wise man would put his money on Murray Walker’s opinion, I’m sorry to say. The work needed to create a heavily modified circuit and all the new buildings necessary for a 2010 British Grand Prix appears to be well behind any credible schedule. A very sad story seems to be taking shape.

We’ll miss this place for historic racing. Think of the wonderful VSCC See Red meetings, the HSCC events and The Masters series, not to mention a host of smaller club meetings. Let’s hope I’m proved wrong but I reckon they should pull the plug on this Donington GP pipedream now, if it’s not already too late.