Huge Free Renault Festival Set For Donington In September

[villarule]

Has anyone been to Donnington before? What's the parking situation like? Do we have to leave early to get a good space (or any space at all!).

Cheers,

Suman

Parkings not too bad, Theres alot of space out at the main entrance if you want to park there and walk through the paddock area, or there is an infield entrance where there is a never a problem parking

Im not going, the meganes and FRenault are hardly a great racing series, and after being there a few weeks ago for the Le Mans series, this will most certainly dissapoint

[bad boy]

is any1 posting any pics ect??

[BenW]

Well, i went and wasn't too impressed. I've never been to a racing event before. The sound was deafening and we saw some nice crashes but it took ages to get into the place then as with all these things you can only really see a tiny bit of the circuit!

So it was ok, think we were very bored with our journey there (About 2.5 hours of motorways!). Loved the meganes though, great machines

I didn't really take any photos because the wire fencing was everywhere, couldn't get any decent spots to take photos. I'm sure some members here will prove me wrong though

[Sumanji]

Stole my own post from the thread in the Bargain hunt forum!

Wow, what an awesome weekend! First racing thingy I've ever been to and I loved it (unlike BenW ). Saturday was definitely better though, as it was a lot less packed than Sunday, and there were more cool races on. Got hundreds of pics (literally), if you're on Facebook you should be able to get to some of them through my sig.

One of my old school mates was working with Coles Racing, so he showed us round the cars and stuff which was cool.

Lowe; kept an eye out for you mate, but there were too many Renaults everywhere!

[BenW]

I really enjoyed the meganes, probably would have enjoyed the clios more but unfortunatly dad wanted to get back before everyone else was leaving the car park.

Again, would have enjoyed the F1 but we were still trying to find a decent viewing spot when that was going around

[mart_haj86]

I loved it, I have a few pics but not many as we were sitting too far away from the track (on the large hill at the rear of the track). My favourite was the Formula Renault 2.0 cause they kept spinning off down by the bridge with the aircraft on it (name?).

[villarule]

Thats the old hairpin, best spot for spinoffs there

as with all these things you can only really see a tiny bit of the circuit!

I have to disagree there, Donington is great for specting, go on the outside of Redgate (first corner) and you can see down the s/f straight, redgate, old hairpin, mcleans and some of coppice. Theres quite a few other places where you can see alot of the track too.

[BenW]

Ah, guess thats what we got wrong!

We were on the outside of mcleans. There was one megane that came off and went pretty much along the tyre wall then the front got caught and it span around...........all just meters from a camera man and he didn't even flinch, all spectators on the other side of the fence ran for their lives!

[Lowe]

Well, I really enjoyed it - was hugely busy, over 91,000 people there over the weekend making it the busiest event ever at Donington Park.

Had a great laugh out on the track, but alas we were called in after 2 laps since there were too many people messing about which was a shame. Still, 2 laps were better than none, and my passenger got some great in car shots.

[chriswood_7]

Well, I really enjoyed it - was hugely busy, over 91,000 people there over the weekend making it the busiest event ever at Donington Park

Surely that was the fact that it was free? Its not really a high profile racing series so they would struggle to bring in the crowds if we were paying £30 a ticket like BTCC/BSBK?

[Lowe]

Yes it's free, but the Clio Cups certainly have a loyal following, and don't forget all the historic collector cars that were there are brought together from the owners clubs. These owners clubs have huge support which bumps the numbers up again. If they were charging then I guess numbers would of been down, but lets face it - the whole weekend is a huge publicity event for Renault, one which I imagine is hugely successful.

[chriswood_7]

Yup there is no mistaking that one. I follow the Clios to an extent as I regularly go to BTCC meets, but I must admit I only really watch it because its on I dont think id travel miles and miles out my way to go specifically to see them. Im sure that Renault are focusing more on the weekend outing for the family rather than just one type of people who are hardcore racing fans, as they seem to have ALOT on over the whole weekend. All in all though, for nowt, you cant really complain.

[dkmech]

There you go Lowe

[Lowe]

Woo, nice one

[Lowe]

Just found a few others of the Clio from around the net, and resized/cropped em. Have a nosy here:

http://www.andrewlowe.plus.com/Hybrid3.jpg
http://www.andrewlowe.plus.com/Hybrid4.jpg
http://www.andrewlowe.plus.com/Hybrid5.jpg
http://www.andrewlowe.plus.com/Hybrid6.jpg

[5lab]

i may have one of your car by mistake.. the clios had nothing on the maxi tubbys D: