A Weekend’s Touring - Donington Park and Cadwell Park

Report by :DEEGEE: Motorsport Photography – David Gowshall

27^th - 28^th April 2024

The 2024 British Touring Car Championship got underway this weekend at Donington Park in “mixed” weather conditions.

Saturday’s programme, although distinctly chilly, was virtually dry throughout, whilst Sunday’s “raceday” was the victim of heavy overnight and early morning rain, which led to the start of racing action being delayed, whilst standing water at the bottom of the Craner Curves could be drained away.

A returning world champion, three former champions and some radical changes to both the qualifying and the hybrid system that operates in this championship, promise a highly competitive season, which will include 30 races, held between April and October at ten venues.

The Championship is a real crowd-puller, evidenced at the Season Launch event only two weeks prior to the season opener, also held at Donington, where large crowds gathered, enjoying a Pit-Walk as well as the on-track action, before heavy rain fell late in the afternoon.

My last visit to a British Touring Car race meeting was in 2022 at Croft, and there were a number of familiar faces from that event lining up on the grid for the opening 2024 action. 

4-times champion drivers Ash Sutton, who was looking to begin the retention of his 2023 title in his NAPA Racing Ford Focus and “tin-top” legend Colin Turkington in his BMW started as championship favourites, along with Colin Ingram (Bristol Motors Hyundai) and Jake Hill in his Laser Tools BMW. 

Former World Touring Car Champion Rob Huff also made a return to the domestic scene in a Toyota Gazoo backed Corolla, and no doubt will be wanting to make an impression.

My youngest daughter, an avid motorsports fan, and I, chose Saturday to visit Donington, which included two lengthy Touring Car free practice sessions and the newly introduced “Quick-Six” qualifying session, run on similar lines to the system that operates in IndyCar.  Added to that were qualifying sessions for the Support classes, and six Support class races during the afternoon. 

Our choice of Saturday to visit the Leicestershire circuit was influenced by a terrible weather forecast for Sunday’s “raceday”, which promised heavy rain during the morning, which turned out to be 100% accurate, and the opportunity to take in some Classic Touring Car racing at my local track at Cadwell Park as part of the BARC Megamix Weekend due to take place on Sunday (more on this later in my report).



At £22 per ticket it seemed reasonable value, and with the crowds reduced from what is always a very busy “raceday”, it gave us both more opportunities to take some shots, although it does tend to restrict those shots, because the drivers are looking to take advantage of a clean track to record the best times, to single car action. 

With conditions likely to be on the cool side I also invested £5 in some “trackside” parking at Starkeys, which gives a panoramic view over Craner Curves and the Old Hairpin, and provided a warm base in the car to return to at intervals throughout the day. 

The “highlight” of the day was the “Quick-Six” qualifying session for the noisy Touring Cars (I’d forgotten how loud they are !!), which was run in the only noticeable rain of the day, which helped to throw up a few surprises, with tyre choice, and the timing of tyre changes proving critical.

Tom Ingram clinched pole position, with pre-season favourites Ash Sutton, Colin Turkington and Jake Hill completing the front four line-up for the following day’s Race 1.



Ronan Pearson (#14) and Andrew Watson (#11), making the best choice of tyres amongst the rest of the field, completed the top six.

I have to say without the onset of rain, which created some interest, the format, which is long-winded, lasting well in excess of an hour to complete, left me a little underwhelmed, and it will be interesting to see how the fans react to it as the season goes on. 

I can’t help feeling the British Superbike Championship format of Qualifying / Race 1 on Saturday and Races 2 and 3 on Sunday still provides a better option to the paying spectators.  Maybe something for the organisers of the Touring Car championship to consider for 2025?

The 2023 Megamix Weekend held at Cadwell had provided me with my introduction to the Legends Championship, which I had thoroughly enjoyed, and with three races held as part of Donington’s Saturday programme I was looking forward to seeing these remarkable downsized American Stock Car replicas, driven by 1200cc motorcycle engines, once again.

These small “pocket rockets” didn’t disappoint, three thrilling races during the day putting a smile on everyone’s face. 

A long list of qualifying sessions and races for Porsche’s, Formula 4 open wheelers, Radicals and Mini’s also provided plenty of variety on track to keep spectators and photographers happy.

Sunday - Cadwell Park - BARC Megamix Weekend

A slightly more encouraging weather forecast for the area closer to home in the Lincolnshire Wolds on Sunday had influenced the order of my weekends motorsport. Accordingly I headed just down the road to Cadwell Park after lunch to take in some racing, some of which, by coincidence, were featuring competitors in the Classic Touring Car Racing Club.

Megamix was a very apt way to describe the weekend’s programme with championship races also for Superkarts and Citreon 2CV’s, amongst many other classes, all helping to provide a very diverse day’s action.

The race programme was significantly changed from that originally planned as a result of the overnight rain, due to standing water on the Start / Finish straight, but during the afternoon I managed to catch the action from most of the classes on show.

A long weekend of motorsport, which begun at 6am on Saturday morning, in bright sunshine and frost on the roof of my car, ended in sunshine, although the weather served up in between had played havoc with the two meetings race programmes.

Nonetheless it had proved very enjoyable and given lots of opportunities to capture some action. A varied weekend with a Touring Cars theme. 

Virtually all the shots taken at Donington Park were taken through the safety fence that line the outside of the circuit, proving it is possible to achieve perfectly good results, despite, what many people seem to believe, based on the reactions and questions I was getting from spectators and other photographers.

Thanks to David Gowshall for this report which you can share with your friends on Social Media using these links.

You can see more of :DEEGEE: Motorsport Photography by clicking his website picture.