My first visit of the year to Cadwell Park gave me something of a surprise. After parking in my normal spot between Coppice and Charlies I walked down towards the start finish line to find a brand new footbridge across the track. Just what was needed and I hope the improvements keep coming.

Anyway the event was organised by Derby Phoenix Motorcycle Club which was attended by a decent size crowd no doubt boosted by the uncharacteristically sunny Bank Holiday weather. So well attended that there were no programs left when I arrived. Races over the 2 days included 400cc & 600cc, Mini-Thunderbikes up to 400cc Multi & 650cc Singles & Twins, Super Stock 600cc, Pre-Injection Formula 600cc, 600 Steel-frame Cup, Early Injection Formula 600cc (Pre-2008), Thunderbikes 750 multi/ Pre-Injection 751cc To 1300cc 1200 twins & triples, 751cc – 1300cc 4 Strokes , Solos 700cc to 1,300cc Allcomers, Sidecars Club 600, FSRA F2 Sidecars - phew!!
No captions for the following images but if anyone can enlighten me….

Tags: Cadwell Park, Derby Phoenix, Sidecars, Motorcycle, Motorsport

I attended the popular 3 day event on the Sunday and as you would expect there was plenty to see around the track and in the paddock with a display of Ayrton Senna’s Formula 1 cars a popular attraction. On track it was the Group C cars that did it for me - the TicTac livery one of my favourites.

A nice day, well attended with some fine weather in the afternoon but ended by the tragic death of Christian Devereaux who collided with another car in his 1965 Mini Cooper S during the Pre 66 Touring Care race. The race was red flagged and the arrival of two helicopters confirmed the seriousness of the incident. The atmosphere was generally subdued and I left the circuit a little later only to learn the sad news when I arrived home.

Group C cars





A nice Bugatti



Ayrton Senna’s JPS Lotus in which he won the 1985 Portuguese GP



Modern dashes aren’t as interesting as this

Tags: Donington Park, Group C, Historic Car Racing

The Easter weekend British GT Championship round at Oulton Park was my first motorsport event this year. Despite the bitterly cold wind and the odd snowflake there was a large crowd to watch a good days racing.
The IDL-CWS G55 Ginetta GT3 of Colin White and Tom Sharp burst into flames right in front of me bringing out the safety car. The fire raged for some time as the marshals tried to extinguish it with little luck initially, running out of extinguishers until more were brought by van. Even that was not enough and two fire tenders were needed to bring it under control. The marshals tackled the blaze efficiently and bravely earning applause at the end. A few photos of the car follow but more can be found in the Gallery.

The Ginetta already on fire as it leaves Lodge.



The marshals were quickly in action but had little impact on the fire.



Fire tenders and additional extinguishers were needed to complete the job.

Tags: Oulton Park, GT Championship, Marshals, MSVR, Fire, Ginetta