
Astons, Austin Healeys, Porsches and more muscle their way through the chicane in The Pall Mall Cup
The Donington circuit has always been close to my heart. Growing up in Nottinghamshire it used to be our local circuit and I even remember walking along the track as a toddler before it was surfaced. That was the early ’70s when the late Tom Wheatcroft was redeveloping the site in order to return racing to the historic venue. It was of course the only British circuit that witnessed those great titans of the prewar era, Auto Union and Mercedes Benz competing with legends such as Nuvolari, Rosemeyer and Richard Seaman behind the wheel. My Grandfather was there in 1938, pressed against the wooden fences, smelling the almond like exhaust fumes from the mysterious cocktail used to fuel the silver machines that seemed to be from another planet. Their banshee like scream ripping through the Leicestershire countryside as they accelerated along Starkey’s straight. The Donington Historic Festival wouldn’t be bringing back those rare German GP giants but they were commemorating one of Donington’s legends, Richard Shuttleworth, with the Mad Jack race for prewar sports cars. Richard ‘Mad Jack’ Shuttleworth was the winner of the first Donington Grand Prix in an Alfa Romeo P3 in 1935. He was an eccentric character, using a Rolls Royce as a muck spreader and a daredevil aviator (see his collection of planes and cars at The Shuttleworth Collection). It was the race named in his honour that we were aiming to catch on Sunday morning after our 2 hour plus journey from West Norfolk.

The Frazer Nash TT Replica of Blakeney-Edwards and Fred Wakeman was on pole for The ‘Mad Jack’ race for Pre War cars.
The race was underway when we arrived. The car parks were reassuringly full indicating a good attendance but the paddock was far from congested. This event was in stark contrast with the Cadwell meeting we had attended two weeks before (see VSCC Cadwell report in blog), numerous articulated trucks were in attendance, a reminder, not that we need it, that historic racing is big business. Catching the action at Redgate Corner but unfortunately having to peer through the ever-present catch fencing of these bigger circuits, we witnessed Lukas Halusa wrestling the beautiful Alfa Romeo 8C Zagato between back markers. His father in a Bugatti 35B, the San Sebastian GP winning car, not far behind. Yet again Nigel Dowding was out in the Riley Brooklands which we imported from Australia and sold to him some years ago. The head gasket failure at Cadwell Park that had caused it to smoke so dramatically was now fixed and so Nigel was able to return to his heroics against the larger capacity pre war cars. Max Sowerby, another entrant who’d had a successful day at VSCC Cadwell was in fine form sharing the drive in his newly acquired Talbot Lago T23 with the son of the former owner Marcus Black. He was kicking up the gravel as he battled slower cars with the 4 litre grunt of his Talbot around Redgate. It’s a deceptively slow corner which I found out to my embarrassment when I pirouetted my Riley Imp on the first lap of the first race of a VSCC meeting some years ago.

Nigel Dowding’s beautifully original 1929 Riley Brooklands
Patrick Blakeney-Edwards and Fred Wakeman had put their Frazer Nash TT Replica Supersports on pole but five laps from the end we saw it pull to the side of the circuit at the top of the Craner Curves. Gareth Burnett came home first in the 2 litre Alta Sports. People were always inclined to trot out the cliche of the unreliability of Alta engines. We never had a problem with ours and that was twin supercharged in the HWM and this car, Burnett’s Alta Sports has been bringing home silverware for years now.
The Group C cars from the early eighties really are a spectacle to behold. Six decades older than the ‘Mad Jack’ prewar sports cars they attract a younger but equally dedicated following. The sound and the fury of their V12 and V10 engines is impressively brutal. For some reason it seems a struggle to get full grids for these cars but the lack of numbers didn’t diminish the visceral appeal. Andrew Bentley brought the Jaguar XJR-8 home in first and David Hart chased hard in the damp conditions but had to settle for a close 2nd.
The Pall Mall Cup had no problems when it it came to the number of entrants. A monstrous grid of just under 40 GT, Touring and Sport Cars of the pre 1966 era jostled and squeezed through Donington’s twists and undulations for nearly three hours. Cobras, E Types, Austin Healey, Lotus Elans, TVRs and a lone Ginetta and Elva battled at times in what seemed like a high speed traffic jam. Congestion wasn’t a problem for the E Type of Minshaw and Keen and the Costin Lister Jag of Girardo and Cottingham as they pulled away at the front. The Costin Lister had a terrific win last year at Silverstone, a 50s sports car showing the way to its ’60s rivals but sadly it was not the same this year. It was the always impressive Minshaw E Type that won by over a lap from the Shelby Cobra of the Chiles father and son team and the Daytona Cobra Coupe of Alderslade and Jordan third. For me though it was the sight of the mighty little Elva GT160 powering through the chicane and showing a clean pair of heels to the bigger V8 brutes that’ll stay with me.

V8 powered TVR Griffith showing the way to the beautiful Aston Martin Project 214, brutish Cobra and agile Lotus Elan 26R
Last year the streaming of the Donington Historic Festival was an impressive achievement involving Sarah Bennett-Baggs and the Historic Motorsport TV team. Appreciative as I was that I could finish painting my study whilst getting my historic motorsport fix, there’s nothing like being there, witnessing the action as it happens with like minded enthusiasts. Next year I’ve heard it’s returning to its traditional three day format, so that means more grids, variety and action. The Donington Historic Festival is beginning to challenge The Classic at Silverstone as the second most popular meeting after the Goodwood Revival.
Do please take a look at the photos of the event in the ‘Gallery’ but in the meantime please enjoy the video below.
Duncan
Donington Historic Festival, May 1st, 2022
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