VSCC Donington - the Richard Seaman Memorial Trophy

[TimD]

The time is drawing near - the moment of truth is almost upon us.

After a winter of people earnestly promising me that they will give the Vintage Sports Car Club race meetings a try, the big one is almost here. The Richard Seaman Memorial Trophy meeting takes place at Donington Park on May 19 & 20. As well as a full programme of Historic motor racing (which has every prospect of being epic, if today's VSCC season opener at Silverstone was anything to go by), the Donington track will be graced by demonstrations of no less than the 1930s Auto Unions which carved their legends there sixty years before.

So - who's up for this one? Are there any more secret closet VSCC nuts out there, who live for the Meccano rumble of a Bentley, or the staccato crackle of a Maserati?

Does a Riley's burr or an ERA's rasp make you stop and listen, or does the tearing calico of a Bugatti do it for you?

Or are all of these delights as yet unsampled? Who is willing to give a whole new world of motor racing a chance? A world where dynasties of racing enthusiasts do battle in cars as diverse as a 900cc Morgan trike and a 24-litre aero-engined Bentley - in the same race!

Come to Donington, and sample the sound of an MG Montlhery C-Type, emulating the shrill warning cry of a sewing machine defending its young....

[Craig]

I'll be there Timbo! On the Saturday anyway... just tell me thatthe Auto Union's will run on Saturday. Please!

I'm just sorry I missed yesterday at Silverstone... apologies for that, but unfortunately I had something else to do as I explained in my earlier PM...

[Carrie]

I'll be there for one day at least. Do you have a timetable, Tim? Why, oh why does it have to clash with the BTCC at Oulton

[Carrie]

Courtesy of the VSCC, here's an event timetable.

Outline Timetable - Donington 19 and 20 May 01
Start Time End Time Event No of Laps/Track Time

Saturday
9:15 9:40 Practice 1 - VSCC Scratch Race 20 Mins
9:40 10:05 Practice 2 - HGPCA Rear Engined GP cars 20 Mins
10:05 10:30 Practice 3 - 5 Lap Handicap Race 20 Mins
10:30 10:55 Practice 4 - Historic Seaman 20 Mins
10:55 11:45 Practice 5 - Endurance Cars 45 Mins
11:45 12:15 Auto Union/Audi Display/Warm up 30 Mins
12:15 12:30 MSA Officials handover to ACU officials n/a
12:30 13:00 Practice 6 - Motor Cycles 25 Mins
13:00 13:30 Bike Demos 30 Mins
13:30 13:50 LUNCH BREAK - ALL QUIET n/a
13:50 14:20 Race 1 – Lansdowne Motor Cycle Race 8 laps
14:20 14:30 ACU officials hand over to 'MSA' officials n/a
14:30 15:00 Race 2 - VSCC Scratch Race 7 laps
15:00 15:30 Race 3 - HGPCA Rear Engined GP cars 12 laps
15:30 16:00 Race 4 - Handicap race 5 laps
16:00 16:30 Auto Union/Audi Demo 30 Mins
16:30 17:00 Race 5 - Historic Seaman 12 laps
17:00 19:15 Race 6 - Endurance Cars 2 hrs 15 mins
19:45 ALL ENGINES SILENT

Sunday
9:10 9:30 Practice 8 – Handicap Race 15 mins
9:30 09:55 Practice 9 - Vintage Seaman & Williams Trophy 20 mins
09:55 10:20 Practice 10 - 1950s Sports/Racing Cars 20 mins
10:20 10:45 Practice 11 – Flockhart Memorial Trophy 20 mins
10:45 11:05 Practice 12 – Handicap Race 15 mins
11:05 11:25 Practice 13 - Brooklands and Goddard 20 mins
11:25 11:45 Practice 14 - VSCC Scratch race 15 mins
11:45 12:15 Auto Union/Audi Parade/Warm up 30 mins
12:15 12:25 MSA Officials handover to ACU officials n/a
12:25 13:00 Lunch/Bike parade (no msa marshals) n/a
13:00 13:30 Race 7 – Lansdowne Motor Cycle Race 8 laps
13:30 13:45 ACU officials hand over to 'MSA' officials n/a
13:45 14:15 Race 8 - Vintage Seaman and Williams Trophy 10 laps
14:15 14:45 Race 9 - Handicap race 5 laps
14:45 15:15 Race 10 - 1950s Sports/Racing cars 10 laps
15:15 15:45 Auto Union/Audi Demonstration 30 mins
15:45 16:15 Race 11 - Flockhart Memorial Trophy 12 laps
16:15 16:45 Race 12 – Handicap Race 5 laps
16:45 17:15 Race13 - Brooklands and Goddard Scratch race 8 laps
17:15 17:45 Race14 - Scratch race 8 laps
18:00 ALL ENGINES SILENT

[Carrie]

Right, Saturday suits me just fine, we've got the Auto Unions out on track, enough to get me there

Firstly, we have secured the support of Audi who plan to demonstrate two pre-war Auto Union grand prix cars and also the 1999 and 2000 Audi Le Mans Cars. It is anticipated that these cars will have two twenty minute time slots on track allocated to them on each day (Saturday and Sunday). The Clerk of the Course has approved the programme and will brief the drivers who are yet to be nominated

[Craig]

Right, i'll see you on the Saturday then...

[Carrie]

Okay, Saturday at Donington for the Auto Unions, Sunday at Oulton for the BTCC, sounds like a good weekend to me

[TimD]

Carrie, thanks for the timetable. You are an absolute star!

I am already getting excited about this one. Two days of VSCC for me - the TOCA tour will have to go on without me...

[Carrie]

I'm getting excited about this now Do we know if they're using the GP loop?

[AndyF]

Please Donington - don't run all the nice cars on Saturday - they will all break down and leave nothing for us people going on Sunday.

[Bluebottle]

Don't worry, anything breaking down on Saturday will be fixed with string and Gaffa tape for Sunday.
I'll be able to make Saturday-see you all there!

[TimD]

Just a quick reassuring note to anyone who opened the pages of Autosport this morning....

I phoned the circuit, and the Historic Festival is going ahead just as planned this weekend. This despite the fact that Autosport, that reliable journal of record, forgot to mention the weekend anywhere in its pages - not in the club news, not in the "what's on", not in the editorial, nowhere!

But it is happening, and those who miss it will be accused of being cuboid - which is even worse than being square.

[Carrie]

Give me a couple of months and I might actually get round to reading this weeks Autosport
See you on Saturday folks

[Carrie]

From the Donington website:

Historic Grand Prix Car Association
The return of Auto Union
plus the 70th anniversary of the first motorcycle race

Auto Unions won the two great Donington Prix Grand Prix races in the circuit's pre-war era, and this weekend, those highly power, legendary "silver arrows" will be back in the parkland circuit providing a moving blast from the past as they take part in on-track demonstrations during the annual Richard Seaman Memorial Trophy Vintage and Historic Race Festival.

And, amid a two days of nostalgic action, the circuit will mark the 70th anniversary of its first motorcycle race - that race, held on Whit Sunday 1931 was won by Squib Burton, riding a 350cc Raleigh, and the winning machine is currently on display in the Donington Grand Prix Collection.

On track, that event will be commemorated by a race on each of Saturday and Sunday for thoroughbred racing machines of the 1950s and 1960s, and among them will be Manx Norton and Matchless G50 bikes.

Race action on Saturday also provides five car events, among them a race for cars entered by members of the Historic Grand Prix Cars Association, the Richard Seaman Historic race (commemorating the only English driver to race for the Mercedes Grand Prix team and who competed against the Auto Unions at the circuit) which features cars from the 1930s, together with an endurance race, over 135 minutes for pre 1965 GT cars and pre 1962 Sports Cars.

Sunday car race action brings more of the Vintage Sports Car Clubs various categories for racing and sports cars of a bygone era onto the circuit, with seven races also including an event for 1950s sports cars.

For many the real action will be provided each afternoon by the Auto Union 16 cylinder C type and 12 cylinder D type Grand Prix cars, evoking memories of the brilliance of the winning drives of 1937 by Bernd Rosemeyer and 1938 by Tazio Nuvolari. Joining these priceless cars on track will be more recent examples of Audi's racing heritage including their Quattro racers from British and German Touring Car Championship action and their Le Mans winning sportscars.

[TimD]

WHAT A WEEKEND!!!!

Sensational racing from start to finish, plus the rare sight of no less than three Auto-Unions blasting round the track.

High point for me has to be the battle between the two Bugatti T35s for the Williams Trophy. They were swapping places throughout the lap, every lap. Resulted in the best commentary line of the day "ooh, and the gap's been opened up now, to at least... oooh... twenty inches."

(This was a race for the lead, I might add.)

What else? Barrie Williams in the Connaught snatching a place from the Tec-Mec Maserati at Macleans in a thoroughly audacious move. The fact that the Tec-Mec was able to pull away later mattered not. I haven't seen such a perfect pass in ages.

The gentle, refined squabble for place between 90 year old Tom Delaney in his Lea Francis and Chloe Mason in the Aston Martin Ulster for the 5 lap handicap. Not often you see Tom contesting a place these days, but he was doing an admirable job today racing against a young lady 65 years his junior...

The Bentley-Napier popping and banging through the Craners, leaving a trail of smoky puffs in its wake.

The sheer speed and power of the stackpipe BRM P57...


All in all, an incredible weekend. When's the next one, please?


And by no means least amongst the delights of the weekend, the inimitable company of Carrie, Craig Antill, Danielsun and Bluebottle for the Saturday. Hope I've persuaded you all to come back next year, folks!

[Carrie]

Thoroughly enjoyable and if it hadn't clashed with the BTCC, I'd have been there for both days. As it is, the BTCC was fantastic as well - I do like this press pass lark

The Bentley-Napier popping and banging through the Craners, leaving a trail of smoky puffs in its wake.

You mean to say it wasn't meant to do that

Great fun, the Auto Unions alone were enough to get me there.

Next stop Goodwood - there must be a topic about that to resurrect somewhere...

[Craig]

Originally posted by Carrie
I do like this press pass lark

It's okay when the circuit doesn't cock up your application, isn't it Carrie ? Let's hope they get their act together at Silverstone for the next round...

What Carrie said really - excellent stuff! Just sorry I was so tired over the weekend and wasn't much company. And I must apologise for falling asleep on the bank on Saturday, Tim, I didn't mean anything by it...!

[TimD]

Originally posted by Carrie

You mean to say it wasn't meant to do that

As it happens, the Bentley-Napier was running a lot sweeter this afternoon.

I guess they must have found a bigger hammer to hit it with.