Jonathan Palmer, chief executive of the UK’s leading circuit operator MotorSport Vision (MSV), has hinted that he could be interested in buying the lease to Donington Park – if the price was right.
Previous leaseholder Donington Ventures Leisure Ltd (DVLL) went into administration after failing to raise the funds to redevelop the track in time to fulfil its contract to host Formula 1’s British Grand Prix.
Palmer, whose company already has Brands Hatch, Oulton Park, Snetterton and Cadwell Park on its books, called Donington a “very sad situation” but added: “I'm sure whether it's BARC, MSV, BRDC, a lot of people would be interested in running the circuit. But it all just comes down to on what commercial terms and is it viable? That's the big question.
“I'm not quite sure what [circuit owner] Kevin Wheatcroft has in mind for Donington yet. He has had a torrid time frankly getting the circuit back from the administrators after DVLL went into administration. He's only just got the circuit back, so I think it's fairly early days there yet, but as I said, it comes back to value. I suspect it may well be worth more for alternative use – but I wouldn't rule it out at all.”
Speaking to Crash.net Radio, Palmer continued: “Donington is a very sad situation. The promises that were made by [DVLL chairman] Simon Gillett looked hugely ambitious to everybody, and of course, they weren't realised.
“[The F1 dream] was always doomed to fail. I thought the chances of him being able to raise the money were very, very slight. There was promise after promise, but none of them looked very likely and I don't think many people really believed it was going to happen, but it just occupied a lot of time and, clearly, some were taken in by it.
“It's one thing him not getting the funds to have the grand prix, but I think what is so, so sad is that a great track has been despoiled badly. There's been a lot of damage done to it and it's going to take a lot of money to repair that damage. It's also going to take a lot of money to do the ongoing maintenance, repairs and renewals that the circuit should have had. Anyone who has been there recently will know that the access roads are potholed – it's in a very shabby state and all that is very sad indeed.
“I hope [Donington still has a future as a racing circuit], but I'm not sure, because it's going to need a lot of money to sort it out. That's doable, but it's difficult to see where the upside commercially is really going to come from now. They've obviously not got the Formula 1 – not that I think that's a big problem – but they haven't got MotoGP any more, they've not got World Superbikes either and as the promoters of British Superbikes we've had to pull the round there, because clearly we can't have whole teams and TV and ticket sales when the event may well not happen.
“Donington now is reduced to the level of club circuit really – its activity is going to be from weekday track hire for testing and from track days, and weekend club racing. The thing is, the big international meetings like World Touring Cars, DTM, FIA GT – those prestigious-ish events – just don't make any money, so it's very hard to see how Donington is going to have a big upside. That's going to reflect in its value, and it wouldn't surprise me to see that there would be a bigger value at Donington if the whole place was used for off-airport parking for East Midlands Airport.”
