Donington Historic Festival to Race on Grand Prix Circuit in 2025

Throughout the history of Donington Historic Festival, track action has taken place on the circuit’s National layout. However, for 2025, event organisers Motor Racing Legends has taken the decision to run on the full Donington Park GP Circuit, for the best competitor – and spectator – experience possible.

“The experience for our drivers is always forefront in our minds when we’re considering our direction,” says Pierre-Antoine Lecoutour, CEO of Motor Racing Legends. “We had a lot of conversations with entrants over the winter and from those conversations, we believe that the best racing, and the best driver experience, will come from using the Melbourne loop. Principally, it gives two more overtaking opportunities on the lap, but there are also plenty of benefits from running on a longer circuit.”

Having come down the back straight, competitors in 2025 will take the left-right at Fogarty esses before plunging downhill for Melbourne Hairpin and climbing back for the final turn, Goddards. Both Melbourne and Goddards are excellent overtaking opportunities, as famously proven by Ayrton Senna in 1993, and extremely popular spectator viewing is available around large parts of the loop.

Taking place on 2nd, 3rd and 4th of May, the event is the first Motor Racing Legends weekend of the year on British soil, and will celebrate 10 decades of motorsport history with cars from the 1920s, in Pre-War Sports Cars, to the 2010s in GT3 Legends. Opening the season for Pre-War Sports Cars is the ‘Mad Jack’ race, highlighting the 90th anniversary of the first Donington Grand Prix in 1935, while U2TC, returning to standalone grids, will enjoy two forty-minute races at its first race weekend of the year.

17 races are scheduled across three days, with racing from Friday afternoon. Saturday night’s showpiece will see the Royal Automobile Club Pall Mall Cup race into the gloaming, with a three-hour race set to finish just before eight o’clock.