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No The pictures are on the thoroughbred sports classic car club site forum and were posted by Cris Acklam who is there forum moderator and races a Morgan ( very well), its the third posting down on there competition/racing section follow the link on that, I apologize for having the inability to put a link up here but have only just learned how to wipe my arse, my daughter is writing this.

 

Alan

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No The pictures are on the thoroughbred sports classic car club site forum and were posted by Cris Acklam who is there forum moderator and races a Morgan ( very well), its the third posting down on there competition/racing section follow the link on that, I apologize for having the inability to put a link up here but have only just learned how to wipe my arse, my daughter is writing this.

 

Alan

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Here are some more photos (from Alan's recommendation)

 

http://f1.gpupdate.n...=4280&startat=0

 

For some reason I cant get a proper link to this site, but hopefully if you paste this address into your browser it will work.

 

Regards

 

Peter

 

 

Edited to show a working link (hopefully)

Edited by dykins
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Link doesn't work for me - perhaps protected and I need an account to login?

 

 

You might be right, Brian.

 

I have just amended my previous post's link, so please try that.

 

Regards

 

Peter

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I have just amended my previous post's link, so please try that.

 

 

 

Same result:

This program cannot display the webpage

 

Update:

Clicking on the new link does work, but you don't need the bit before it

(i.e. file:///C:/Users/PETERD%7E1/AppData/Local/Temp/moz-screenshot-3.png)

 

Now that I've seen it, I wish I hadn't - very sad.

 

Edited by BrianC
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Don't know then, I'm afraid.:(

 

I registered with the Thoroughbred Sports Car Club (which was simple to do) and went to their Forum, where the posting was easily found.

 

The earlier link still works for me, but I suppose it is because I'm now a member.

 

Well worth registering though, as apart from the Donington topic, there is a lot of interesting stuff.

 

Regards

 

Peter

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Works for me, and a most interesting clutch of pics - thank you dykins!

Are those on the Thoroughbred site any different? I'm, now registered there and my logon accepted,but I am still told, " You do not have the required permissions to read topics within this forum."

 

 

The GP Update pics are, strangely, reassuring. The only disturbances of the circuit surface that i can see are where the tunnel was built and at Goddards and, I think, at the Melbourne Hairpin. The works within the circuit look apocalyptic, though, and some are full of water. That amount of soil disturbance will need a while to settle so that events, spectators, shows, can take place on it, surely? But club racing may not be a problem once the road works are made good.

Revealing are the works to lengthen the access tunnel. Oroginally a concrete box inserted under the track, it can be see being extended by steel shuttering, so that the run-off can be extended back to the original width and the slope of the access lessened. Surely the short steep tunnel was an incompetent cock-up?

 

John

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  • 2 weeks later...

Incompetent cock up probably sums up the whole saga.

I know read that the ownership has reverted back to the Weatcroft family as a buyer could not be found by the reciever.

Roy

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hi guys and girls i asked the question of donnington becoming a developers heaven and have been informed that as it lays under the east midlands airport main flightpath it connot be used for housing so hopefully it will be saved and used as tom dreamed as a race track.

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Donington never left the ownership of the Wheatcrofts. It was rented to the new consortium, and on their defaulting on due payments they lost any rights they had been given to it. The receiver, as was their duty, sought people willing to invest in the consortium, a vain hope as the reason the consortium failed was that no one wanted to invest.

 

Even better, the Wheatcrofts are free of any debts or responsibilities that the consortium took on.

They do have an infield like a war zone. And the ill-advised access tunnel to it will need work and cost to make good the circuit surface and the run-off area. The pics also show a trench across the uphill section of the Melbourne Hairpin, but no other track damage. It can be done, but onky the Wheatcrofts can say if it will.

 

John

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Hi John,

 

Donington was leased to DVLL, which is not the same thing as rented, for a 150 year term. According to the administrators, the terms of the lease were sufficiently 'onerous' as to deter potentially interested parties from purchasing the lease within the available time scale. Hence the lease reverted to the freeholders, Wheatcroft & Son Ltd.

 

If the lease had been purchased, the new lessee would have been obliged to maintain operations as per the requirements of the existing lease, as a racing circuit. Reversion of the lease cancels any such continuing obligation, the Wheatcroft company now presumably being free to consider whatever possibilities the directors and/or shareholders may see fit.

 

Counting chickens may not yet be in order . . . especially in the light of the past chequered relationship between Donington and the motor sport establishment.

 

Cheers,

 

Alec

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Hi All

Like John Davies, and as a Civil Engineer myself, I am reasonably encoraged by the photos of Donington. There is no time/date info on the photos.

Work to complete the tunnel it is fair to say looks extensive. This is by far and away the biggest single element. I have no idea how far this has gone since the photos were taken.

The rest of the circuit does not appear to be beyond redemption. The only track disturbance seems to be a few drain or duct crossings most of which seem to be on the Melbourne Loop. At Club racing level we could probably manage without that.

While the infield earthworks are very extensive, presumably they will now not be continued with. Minor reshaping and re topsoiling and seeding would soon get that back into a reueable condition.

There will probably be some safety barrier replacement to do but other than that it looked to be mainly cosmetic. There was no evidence of the start/finish and pits/paddock area being changed at all.

The nub of the whole exercise could be whether the circuit would be a viable commercial proposition for the Wheatcroft family with only club racing and none of the higher profile meetings such as the Moto GP, BTCC, Formula 3, GTs, British Superbikes, etc, if they can't be tempted back.

We can but hope.

 

Regards

Dave McDonald

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There is a glimmer of hope. Todays' Motorsport News (5th Jan 2010) carries an article suggesting that the BARC is one of three parties who have expressed an interest in taking out a lease to operate Donington. The BARC do a god job at the circuits they already operate at, Thruxton, Mallory Park, Croft and Pembrey. We may yet get to race there again in the future.

Dave McDonald

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  • 4 weeks later...

In the bad old days of imminent bankruptcy, and amid fears that the only way forward was housing, a campaign was started to "Save Donington!"

The principal idea was for as many as possible to turn up on a certain day, to demonstrate the size and enthusiasm of the Donington using population, in the hope of encouraging investment.

 

Now those days are gone, and we are well assured - that the Wheatcroft family are back in control and intend to return the circuit to motorsport, the same is still true. The campaign continues and the appointed day is Sunday the 7th March.

 

There is a website for the campaign at: http://www.savedonington.co.uk/

 

The website includes a list of car clubs that have offered their support. It includes an alarming number of Japanese names, plus Lotus and Mini. It would be good to have the TRR there too.

 

JOhn

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