PRESS RELEASE
Donington Historic Motorsport Festival 2014
Historic karting continues to be one of the growth areas in motorsport and in glorious sunshine over the three days of the prestigious Donington Historic Festival (May 3-5th) it was not difficult to see why. The British Historic Kart Club’s relaxed attitude towards the public with a static display and sixty five karts put through their paces around the GP loop created a great atmosphere for an enthusiastic public. The long upward pull toward the main circuit with several karts across the track made an impressive spectacle with the 200/250cc gearbox karts providing a throaty roar as they moved up through the gears.
Dating from 1960 until 1982 and powered by 100cc to 250cc engines, there was plenty of variety amongst the sixty five karts with three members of the invited Dutch historic kart club bringing along one of the more unusual, a Fortura/McCulloch.
Ayrton Senna’s 1979 DAP kart was of course one of the stars of the BHKC’s display with some lucky people obtaining a photograph for their album. Senna’s kart now joins a kart raced by Roger Williamson, on public display in the Donington museum.
Another interesting and rare kart on show was a Dale Sabre. A unique design for its time that found little favour with most karters, but one notable exception was Nigel Mansell.
Tony Brinkworth had a recently restored 1963 Fastakart 77/JLO out for the first time and with Whizzo Williams and his father manufacturing Fastakarts, one that Whizzo was very interested in during one of his many visits. Another owner/ builder was Garry Bracegirdle. He and his father built JEB’s during the 1970s and Garry had two 1973 karts on show, a stunning 100cc example on static display and another on track.
However it was track that it was all about and this year with the British Historic Kart Club sharing the GP Loop with the Historic Rally Register and the Group B Rally cars the public had constant track action for all three days of the festival.
The Donington Historic Festival is just one of many interesting events on the BHKC’s calendar. Over May 16-18th is our European trip to the Coppa dei Campioni in Jesolo (Venice) Italy, and our next UK meeting open to the public is the Shenington Revival, 13-15th June, near Banbury. Details are on our website
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Photos from Donington Festival accredited photographer and BHKC club member Chris Norwood are available at
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