A recent visit to the famous Donington circuit in England, for the launch of a wonderful book about the history of the place, got me to thinking of many other great circuits of yesteryear and what has become of them. Donington, which was Britain’s first road racing circuit, survives albeit not exactly in its original shape, but very close to. After the glorious years when the German Silver Arrows, the Mercedes and Auto Unions, raced there (Nuvolari won the 1938 event) the track was requisitioned by the British army as a vehicle storage facility, and post-war they were reluctant to leave. To remove all those thousands of inoperative, mouldering, old vehicles must have appeared too daunting a task for the military. However, one day they were finally gone, and Tom Wheatcroft was able to purchase the property and restore it to a proper racing circuit, as near as was practical to the original layout.
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