Having swapped Donington dates with the Classic Sports Car Club, Masters Historic Racing would find themselves with a mid summer date for 2024, and with Historic Formula One cars on the schedule it proved an attractive event for the paying public.
Having struggled for numbers at Donington in recent years 2024 represented an improvement but there were still only 11 cars apiece for the Historic F1 and Endurance Legend events with Masters customers possibly favouring the Silverstone Festival at the end of the month. However what was lacking in quantity was most definitely made up for in quality with some iconic DFV powered F1 machinery on display as well as the ex Nigel Mansell piloted Ginetta-Zytek 09s and the absolute beaut that is the Lola B08/80 of Mike Newton in the endurance field. Hang on, I saw the latter two in period, jeez I must be getting old!!
Headlining the opening day of the event meanwhile were the Pre-66 Touring Cars where ex-BTCC racer Sam Tordoff lead the field from pole in his JRT prepared Ford Falcon. Having stormed to victory in 2023, the Yorkshireman would again prove unbeatable in 2024 with the 8 time BTCC race victor making up his elite driver 30 second pit stop penalty within the first stint of the race!
But whilst victory was a foregone conclusion the battle for the remaining steps of the podium was anything but, with the Mustang of John Davison and Cortina of Mike Simpson the leading contenders throughout the first stint. Nigel Greensall however would have a weekend to remember and having taken over the John Spiers Mustang during the mandatory pitstops found himself reeling in the aforementioned duo over the closing stages.
And with only handful of laps remaining, Greensall, a stalwart of historic racing, had managed to slip past both and claim an excellent runners up spot. Meanwhile a self confessed rather robust move at McLeans on the last lap would also see Simpson finally get the better of Davison to make it three very different Fords on the podium.
Greensall had earlier starred in the hour long Sports Car Legends race where again paired with Spiers drove the wheels off the awesome Can-Am McLaren M1B; seemingly sideways from exit of Redgate to the top of the Craner curves for the whole of the second stint to record a first podium of the weekend. Ahead meanwhile Gary Pearson, aboard his Lola T70 MK3B, had managed to keep the Lola T292 of Diogo Ferrao behind for the first stint but post pit stops, with the ultra rapid Martin Stretton installed, it was a different kettle of fish and Stretton would soon find himself in the lead of the race.
And whilst Pearson was able to keep Stretton honest for a while, the thirsty Lola would ultimately end the day in fourth as despite being filled to the brim would run out of fuel with just a couple of laps remaining. This left the similar machine of Jason Wright to claim the runners up spot and Spiers and Greensall to round out the podium positions.
Not content with saturday’s podium finishes, Greensall would round out the weekend in style as he and John Spiers claimed victory in the Gentleman Drivers race aboard their TVR Griffith. The highlight of the weekend for many (me included), the 90 minute race for Pre-66 world endurance machinery saw a high quality entry take the start for the final race of the weekend.
Cobras in their many forms had previously dominated pre-66 GT events but in recent times the TVR Griffith seems to be the car of choice and having started from pole it was the Nigel Reuben Racing prepared machine of John Davison who lead the early running from the similar machines of Mike Whitaker and Harry Barton.
Indeed all looked to be going well for Davison until the TVR pilot lost the use of second gear after the scheduled stops. This appeared to be all the incentive Greensall needed as the professional driver coach charged through the pack in the second half of the race and would pass the ailing Davison machine at the Roberts chicane with just a few laps remaining. Davison would however have enough in hand to claim second whilst Mike Whitaker would complete a TVR lock out of the podium positions. Meanwhile John Tordoff and Andrew Jordan would claim the under 2 litre class victory with an excellent 6th aboard the JRT prepared Lotus Elan 26R.
11 immaculately turned out F1 cars featured in the 2 Racing Legends events and the pre-85 machines were a joy to watch on the relatively recently resurfaced East Midlands circuit. I challenge anyone to tell me there is a better sound than a 3 Litre DFV engine powering out of the Old Hairpin (even if capped at 10k rpm)!
On the day pole sitter Matthey Wrigley in his 1982 Tyrell 011 was the man to beat and looked odds on for victory in race 1 before being forced into retirement with mechanical woes. This left the very well driven 1979 Williams FW06 of David Shaw to claim victory after the McLaren of Steve Hartley suffered a similar fate; a brilliant drive considering the Williams man was up against more recent ground effect machinery.
Wrigley however made up for his earlier retirement in style during race 2. Starting from the back of the grid, the Tyrrell man quickly weaved his way through the field and into the lead by half distance to claim a well deserved victory. David Shaw again excelled to claim second whilst Simon Fish (Arrows A4) followed up his earlier 2nd place finish by rounding out the podium positions in race 2.
Despite Wrigley setting a time of 1.00.841, quicker than anything else I had seen at Donington in many a year, this was not even fastest time of the weekend. That honour instead went to the Ginetta-Zytek of Freddie Tomlinson who set a ridiculous lap time of 58.880 in the second Endurance Legends race of the weekend. Whilst not overly fussed about the LMP3 machinery in the Endurance Legends races the P1 and P2 machinery at the front of the field invoked great memories of my trips to Le Mans and when the cars at the front are lapping in less than a minute it didn’t really matter that only 11 cars turned up!
Not surprsingly with the pace of the younger Tomlinson, Freddie and Lawrence recorded double victory in their Ginetta-Zytek 09s, with Alfie Briggs in the HPD ARX-04 claiming a pair of seconds whilst the Lola’s of Mike Newton and Alan Purbrick/David Brise took a 3rd place apiece. Incidentally (according to wikipedia) Tomlinson’s fastest lap is a new lap record for LMP machinery at Donington and not a million miles away from the outright track record!
I remember being rather disappointed by the GT Trophy races in 2023, largely due to the lack of entries, but 2024 proved a different story altogether as a wide ranging grid of 24 cars took the start for race 1! Whilst in my head I still struggle see the largely GT3 / Cup class cars as historic it proved an excellent addition to the weekend and I must admit I had forgotten how good the previous generation of GT cars sounded before large turbos became the norm!
On the day the ultra rapid Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo was the car to beat and Craig Wilkins claimed double victory in his 2017 machine. The 2009 Mosler MT900 was my personal favourite however and was pleased to see the 7 litre brute of Adam Sharpe and George Haynes record top three finishes in both events.
Guesting on the schedule were the HRDC Dunlop Allstars and a mammoth 37 cars would form the grid for a 30 minute blast around the Donington National circuit. As it was several of the Gentleman Drivers racers took the opportunity for a second event of the day and it would be John Davison’s TVR Griffith who would edge out Mike Whittaker to take the victory, with no Greensall or Simpson to spoil the party on this occasion!
Aided by great weather, the 2024 Masters Race Weekend proved to be a fabulous weekend of motorsport with a standard of racing to match as just 2 safety car periods were required all weekend. Grids were a little on the light side in places however and I do miss the large entries we used to see for the pre-76 sports car events. Peter Auto seems to be the authority for this era of machinery though which brings us back to the age old debate of whether there are just too many historic racing events on the calendar?
Next up for me is the Vintage Sports Car Club meet at Mallory at the end of August and then back to rallying with the Woodpecker in early September.
GALLERY
Paul Commons Motorsport 