A Guide to Photography at Donington Park

Right, so how to start this? A guide to taking photos at Donington Park. First of all - why? Well, Donington is my local circuit, I've been to it God knows how many times. I know it very well, especially from a spectator side of things. And also from a driving side of things. However, since I'm not a Formula 1 super star, I do not think I am qualified enough to give a guide on driving on Donington Park (apart from keeping on the black stuff. Car vs barrier, I'll let you guess who is going to win that one).

Anyway, why write this article? Well, support you local race circuit as much as possible. Without spectators seeing the races, motorsport would sadly disappear from this country. The UK has a great motorsport heritage, and hopefully will have for years to come.

So, your visiting Donington Park for the first time. Where to stand? Where do i see the cars the best? Where can i see the cars piling into each other into a huge fire ball of carbon fibre and aluminium, causing global warming on a huge scale, making the ice caps melt and we all die from a mixture of drowning and massive sun burn. But that is a different story.

Donington offers loads of great places to view the cars from. But where? Well, lets start at the start/finish straight. Only one side you can view from. You need to go through the paddock tunnel, under the circuit. This takes you to the inside of the circuit, where we will start. You will need to turn right and climb up a steep hill, or turn left and climb up a slightly not so steep hill. You can then see the track. Although there is a high catch fence in the way, using the right techniques you can get half decent photos of the cars zooming past the pits. Standing there when there is a field of classic F1 cars from the 1980's, the ground shakes. That is an experience you can never forget.

Following the circuit round. Heading towards the first corner - Redgate. The inside of Redgate is a great place to watch from. There is no catch fencing, so you can get an unrestricted view of the track. With a decent zoom on your camera (which most cameras have nowadays) then you can get some pretty decent shots from here. Carry on following the track to the Craner Curves. Walking down them is ok, but walking back up them, its quite steep. As you go down, you do get further from the track, but again with a good zoom on your camera and you'll be fine. Standing as close to the wall as you can get helps with getting some good shots. This is also where the famous Spitfire (with only 1 wing) stands. As you climb the hill towards the middle of the track, during busy and/or high profile weekends, this is where you find the burger and doughnut stands if your felling peckish and not at all concerned with your waistline. This area is grass, so on a nice dry day, it makes for a great viewing area. As you can see the craner curves, the old hairpin and up towards Mcleans.

I have yet to view the inside of Mcleans and Coppice, so I can not yet judge on them. But next time I'm at Donington, I will try those areas out.

The outside of those areas then. Redgate all the way to the Dunlop Bridge I have been, and also make for good spectator areas. They do have catch fencing all the way around the outside. However, you can point your lens (from your camera) through the gaps where the marshals get through, and also where the recovery vehicles can access the track. The outside of the old hairpin is a good place. Offers great views of the cars coming down towards you down the craner curves into the old hairpin and the exit towards mcleans. Again, makes for great photos, even with a camera that doesn't have that much zoom on. Although more zoom enables you to get some shots that you would not otherwise get.

Those are my favourite places for watching and taking photos at Donington Park. So you will usually find me around those areas on some race days.

For some examples on what I've been on about, you can visit my website which has a few hundred photos from Donington Park from various race series. (Website url in profile).

I hope this guide has been useful. If it has, then please tell me. If not, then again, please tell me and I will write a 3rd version. A 2nd version is in the works for those areas not covered in this guide. Contact details in my profile on here or on my website.

Thanks for reading, and I hope to see you at a race circuit soon!

:)