With the release of the timetable for the 2024 Donington Historic Festival, historic motorsport enthusiasts can now decide whether to buy tickets for Saturday 4 May or Sunday 5 May. Or, indeed, they may well choose to attend for the full weekend and enjoy the entire outstanding, varied and enormously entertaining spectacle that will play out across the two days.
Each day of DHF 2024 offers its own unique blend of world-class classic motor racing, and many of the races are two-driver, so require pit stops and driver changes, adding to the excitement! Saturday 4 May features a glorious line-up of sportscars from the 1940s to the early 1960s in Motor Racing Legends’ combined Royal Automobile Club Woodcote Trophy & Stirling Moss Trophy race, plus a bumper grid of 1960s, ‘70s and ’80s Touring Cars in the Historic Touring Car Challenge with Tony Dron Trophy and the Sixties Touring Car Challenge with U2TC. Saturday also features a dedicated Ferrari race, with the Superformance Ferrari Club Classic. The track action that day ends in stunning style, with Motor Racing Legends’ epic, three-hour Royal Automobile Club Pall Mall Cup, which will see an astonishing grid of pre-’66 GT and Touring Cars, pre-’63 GTs and pre-’61 Sports Cars battle it out for 180 minutes.
Sunday 5 May boasts two dedicated ‘tin top’ races – the HRDC Gerry Marshall Trophy and HRDC Jack Sears Trophy, for pre-‘83 Group 1 and 1½ Touring Cars and 1958-1966 Touring Cars respectively. And tin top fans are in for another treat with the HRDC Dunlop Allstars for pre-‘66 Sports, GT and Touring Cars and HRDC Classic Alfa Challenge for 750-116 Alfa Romeos. Lovers of early racing cars can watch 1920s and ‘30s Bentleys, Morgans, Frazer Nashes and Aston Martins, to name but a few, racing wheel-to-wheel in Motor Racing Legends’ ‘Mad Jack’ for Pre-War Sports Cars, while Ferrari enthusiasts can immerse themselves in no less than two Superformance Ferrari Club Classic races. And fans of sleek GT cars will thoroughly enjoy seeing the Pre ’63 GT’s unique array of two-seat GT cars built and raced in the Tourist Trophy and other high-profile events of the period.
Saturday, 4 May
09:05 – 09:35 Royal Automobile Club Woodcote Trophy & Stirling Moss Trophy for pre-’56 and pre-’61 sportscars (qualifying)
09:45 – 10:15 Historic Touring Car Challenge with Tony Dron Trophy and the Sixties Touring Car Challenge with U2TC (qualifying)
10:25 – 10:45 Superformance Ferrari Club Classic (qualifying)
10:55 – 11:45 Royal Automobile Club Pall Mall Cup for pre-‘66 GT and Touring Cars, pre-’63 GTs and pre-’61 Sports Cars (qualifying)
12:00 – 13:00 Royal Automobile Club Woodcote Trophy & Stirling Moss Trophy for pre-’56 and pre-’61 sportscars (race)
13:00 – 14:00 Lunch Break / Demos / Parades / Pit Walk
14:00 – 14:50 Historic Touring Car Challenge with Tony Dron Trophy and the Sixties Touring Car Challenge with U2TC (race)
15:05 – 15:25 Superformance Ferrari Club Classic Series (race 1)
15:40 – 18:40 Royal Automobile Club Pall Mall Cup for pre-’66 GT and Touring Cars, pre-’63 GTs and pre-’61 Sports Cars (race)
Sunday, 5 May
09:05 – 09:30 HRDC Gerry Marshall Trophy for pre-‘83 Group 1 and 1½ Touring Cars (qualifying)
09:40 – 10:10 Pre ’63 GT (qualifying)
10:20 – 10:35 HRDC Dunlop Allstars for pre-‘66 Sports, GT and Touring Cars and HRDC Classic Alfa Challenge for 750-116 Alfa Romeos (qualifying)
10:45 – 11:10 ‘Mad Jack’ for Pre-War Sports Cars (qualifying)
11:20 – 11:45 HRDC Jack Sears Trophy for 1958-1966 Touring Cars (qualifying)
12:00 – 12:20 Superformance Ferrari Club Classic (race 2)
12:20 – 13:20 Lunch Break / Demos / Parades / Pit Walk
13:20 – 14:05 HRDC Gerry Marshall Trophy for pre-‘83 Group 1 and 1½ Touring Cars (race)
14:20 – 15:20 Pre ’63 GT (race)
15:35 – 16:05 HRDC Dunlop Allstars for pre-‘66 Sports, GT and Touring Cars and HRDC Classic Alfa Challenge for 750-116 Alfa Romeos (race)
16:20 – 17:00 ‘Mad Jack’ for Pre-War Sports Cars (race)
17:15 – 17:35 Superformance Ferrari Club Classic (race 3)
17:50 – 18:35 HRDC Jack Sears Trophy for 1958-1966 Touring Cars (race)
With two days jam-packed with race action, track displays and parades, an open-access paddock and pitlane walks, a trade village, plus the presence of hundreds of cherished classic cars in displays staged by dozens of car clubs, the Donington Historic Festival has long been a ‘must do’ event in the historic motorsport calendar. The calibre of drivers matches that of the calibre of cars, with past and present-day BTCC and Le Mans names often seen on the entry lists.
Advance discounted ticket prices start at just £26 for a one-day adult (16+) entry, with discounts for teens aged 13-15. Under 13s are admitted for free. For further information and to secure tickets please visit www.doningtonhistoric.com.
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