Grande Passione Donington Park Masters weekend

19th and 20th April Masters hold a race weekend and I do my first full weekend on post

Sign on takes place early on the saturday to a surprise £10 note as a thankyou to each marshal for turning up to work for the day and an embroidered cap sporting the race series name and date in ferrari red

I am posted to Coppice Corner in the raised box to allow drivers to see us properly.

I drive round to post after the briefing and find myself on post with 2 others and end up doing both incident and flagging which is really fun

The Masters Club is running the show for the first time here at Donington and have put on a show that promises to be highly entertaining if not a bit long ( last race is not set to finish till 8pm )

So whats to be expected of Saturday? 11 qualifying sesions in the morning followed by 5 races in the afternoon.

There are :-

Grand Prix Masters - F1 cars from 1966-78

Word Sportscars masters - Le Mans care from 1960's/70's

GT & Sports Endurance Masters from 1950's/60's

Sports Racing Masters upto 1965

Masters Proto70s

Along with a few other visitors to add to the splendor.

First up is World Sportscar Masters 25 F1 cars from 1970-1977 lotus, mclaren, brabham, suteests and more all racing round qualifying for 20 minutes vying for pole position.

Next up is Ferrari owners club followed by pre 1961 GP cars, Sports racing masters follow then the gentelmen drivers over 2-litre cars take to the circuit.

All these cars are lovingly restored to there former glories and raced around trak with finess and passion slideing round the bends and roaring along the strights its enough to bring a tear to the classic car appreciators.

Lunch break brings demonstrations and a pit visit to get a chance to look at some of the wonderful race cars close up and personal.

Afternoon sesion brings more qualifying and the first 5 races of the weekend culminating in a 90 minute Over 2-litre endurance race with drivers pitting to swap half way through the session. How amazing it is to watch so many cars racing so close for position and really pushing these classics to the limits

The day finishes at x past 8 and I'm staying over in a local B&B hotel tonight so I go back and give sash a ring and tell her what I have been upto

Next morning im back on the same post but with a new set of marshals today we are 5 strong but I am given the opportunity to be flaggie for the day so jump at the chance. The observer today is incredible he knows most of the drivers by name/helmet/car and can identify whos where in the race from further away than i can even see numbers he keeps me on the ball and nudges me when i lose track of which cars need blue flagging. Its great fun and an amazing learning experiance. I even found out that the winner of one of the races is Phil Collins record producer another day of amazing cars and information ending with another 60 min endurance race with even closer racing than Saturday.

Will post some picis of the cars that raced this weekend to the end of this blog entry.

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