Donington Park

Circuit Information
Donington Park first opened its gates in 1931, initially for motorcycle racing and then two years later for car action. The circuit went on to stage Grand Prix for both motorcycles and cars in the pre-war era. Donington Park was subsequently re-built and re-opened in 1977 and has staged the British Motorcycle Grand Prix annually since 1987. Among other accolades, Donington Park staged the first ever round of the World Superbike Championship, as well as holding the F1 Grand Prix of Europe in 1993. In the past four years the circuit has been resurfaced, while the pit complex, race control, media building and timekeepers’ offices have recently been completely rebuilt in a £5million development.

Circuit Map

An on-board lap of Donington Park

Circuit Stats
Track Length:
2.498 miles   (4.020 km)
Track Direction:
Anti-Clockwise

Lap Record
23/09/07
Ryuichi Kiyonari, Honda
1m:30.899s, 99.01mph

Circuit Details
Donington Park
Castle Donington
Derby
DE7 2RP
Tel: 01332 810048
Fax: 01332 850422
Click here for map

Directions
Donington Park is at the heart of the Midlands, approximately eight miles south of Derby, at the hub of the major road network. The circuit is within five miles of the M1 junction 23A/M42/A42, M1 junction 24/A6/A453 and M1 junction 24A/A50, and is adjacent to the East Midlands Airport. The nearest railway stations are: Derby and Loughborough – Midland Main Line services, accessible via the London St. Pancras to Sheffield line.

What to look out for?
The fast blind entry into craner curves.

Donington Park is a name that conjures up age old racing stories and images, from the Transatlantic races with old hero’s Roberts and Sheene, and then Rainey and Schwantz, to the glory days of World Superbikes with Fogarty, Russell etc through to some fantastic present day MotoGP and WSB battles. Having been resurfaced a few years back it is an icon of British racing circuits (although recently torn up for the now defunct F1 event), and one which every rider should turn a few laps on.

One of the main issues surrounding track-days at Donington is the road-legal exhaust noise restrictions, so best to get the standard can back on if you’ve got a noisy one. (there are occasional ‘noisy’ days we understand, but these are rare)

Coming down Wheatcroft Straight you brake down the left part of the track to enable a good late entry through Redgate (the scene of the famous Schwantz flag waving episode), before accelerating around to Hollywood which is a fast right sweeper. As you exit Hollywood the entry to Craner Curves is blind, and throwing your bike from right to left at over 100mph when you can’t see where you’re going takes some bottle, but is ultimately hugely rewarding (best to blank from your mind the old Rossi & Ukawa massive destructions). You then keep left for the late entry into the old hairpin, trying to keep as much speed as possible up through Schwantz Curve and then round up to Mcleans which you need to brake slightly early for. A burst up to Coppice finds you again searching for a blind apex as you head right, tagging the short apex rumble strip and then powering down Starkeys Straight and under the Dunlop bridge. Full tap down the straight will see most bikes getting light at the front or even wheelying as you pass over the dip halfway down. Heavy braking into the Foggy Esses and it’s a slow flip-flop chicane, best taken with an earlier entry to straight line it as much as possible, then hammer down to the Melbourne Hairpin, (scourge of international racers  moan about the change in flow of the circuit with this dogleg add-on, personally we don’t mind it), as you carefully power back on for the final blast up to Goddards and heavy braking into the off camber left hand corner (Think Lorenzo 2009 and you know what not to do, especially in the wet!). Careful acceleration out of Goddards and down Wheatcroft Straight and that’s a lap of Donington.

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