The 2013 Donington Historic Festival was staged May 3-5 at Donington Park near Castle Donington in Leicestershire, England. The 3rd annual event saw an excellent field of more than 400 historic racing cars challenge the 12-turn, 4.020 km circuit.
This year’s Donington Historics honoured two historic events which took place at Donington Park – the 30th anniversary of the first time Senna ever got behind the wheel of a Formula One car and the 20th anniversary of his phenomenal display of mastery over the rain in the 1993 European Grand Prix.The Festival paid tribute to Ayrton Senna, with seven cars once driven by the triple World Champion on display. Four of these were demonstrated on the circuit, including the JPS Lotus 97T in which Senna had his first-ever GP win, at Estoril in 1985. Few will forget the sight and sound of the distinctive black and gold F1 car taking to the track.
Over 20,000 people attended the 2013 Donington Historics, which featured 18 races for 13 grids spanning seven decades of racing history. Headline races included the HGPCA Nuvolari Trophy for pre-1940 Grand Prix cars, the HMRN Pre-63 GT race, the Royal Automobile Club Woodcote Trophy for pre-56 sportscars, HSCC Historic F2 and the Formula Junior race.
The banner entry list for the HGPCA Nuvolari Trophy Race featured a pair of Alfa Romeo Tipo B P3, including the 1935 Donington Grand Prix winner, in addition to a selection of ERAs, an Alfa Romeo Monza, Bugatti T35s, T37s and a T39, Maserati 4CMs, 6CMs and 8CMs and a Talbot-Lago T26SS, among others.
The event ended on a sad and somber note Sunday, as Christian Devereux passed away from injuries suffered during an accident involving his 1965 Mini Cooper S. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of Mr. Devereux.
From Donington Park Circuit:
“It is with great regret that the directors of Donington Park Racing Limited, operators of Donington Park Circuit, have to report that, following an accident in a race for historic touring cars held as part of the race meeting taking place on Sunday 5th May, the driver of car number 67 (a 1965 Mini Cooper S), Christian Devereux of Chiswick, London succumbed to the injuries sustained at approximately 16.30 hours.
The organising race club, HSCC and Donington Park Racing Limited, together with the circuit’s medical and emergency services, will now be co-operating with both the Leicestershire Police and motorsport’s Governing Body, the Motor Sports Association, in order to determine the cause of this tragic accident.”
“This was the third Donington Historic Festival, and the first to be held over three days,” said organiser Duncan Wiltshire. “By the Sunday morning we were very pleased with the attendance numbers, the quality of racing and of the various displays, as well as the friendly atmosphere that continues to make this event so special. But, of course, all that pales into insignificance in the light of that afternoon’s tragedy. Now the thoughts of the Donington Historic Festival team are very much with the family and friends of Christian Devereux, and everybody affected by the accident.”
Duncan Wiltshire concluded, “We would like to thank Donington Park, the HSCC, the emergency services and marshals and all who helped after Sunday’s accident, for dealing with a very difficult situation in such a professional manner.”
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Senior Photographer Tim Scott documented the 2013 Donington Historic Festival, offering up an excellent selection of images from the historic race event. We split up the 165 pictures Tim captured at Donington into two galleries. The first gallery features our top 50 images, all displayed in the full-width view of our website, while the second gallery is found on the last page of the article and gives a comprehensive view of all the photographs. To see more from Tim, visit fluidimages.co.uk.
Donington Historic Festival 2013 – Top 50 Photo Gallery
Donington Historic Festival 2013 – Top 50 Photo Gallery Page Two
Donington Historic Festival 2013 – Top 50 Photo Gallery Page Three
Donington Historic Festival 2013 – Top 50 Photo Gallery Page Four
Donington Historic Festival 2013 – Top 50 Photo Gallery Page Five
Donington Historic Festival 2013 – Main Photo Gallery (click image for larger picture and description)
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[Source: Donington Historic Festival; photos: Tim Scott / Fluid Images]
Wonderful pix! Thanks so much for going to these events and sharing them with us. It makes the world a lot more cheerful place, even from as far away as Costa Rica!
Thanks guys,brings back many memories of the past,I can still smell the methanol down here in NZ.