Formula Junior
The nursery of the sport — 500cc and 1100cc front-engined and rear-engined single-seaters from 1958 to 1963, the school that produced every F1 champion of the 1960s.
The Historic Motorsport Show
Where the legends of racing live, breathe and thunder back to life.
Europe's largest celebration of historic motorsport returns to Donington Park for a nineteenth edition — three days, 1,200-plus pre-1980 racing machines, the pilots who drove them, and the fans who never stopped believing.
Chapter one
Eighteen editions, one obsession.
Founded in 2007, the Historic Motorsport Show has run every year without interruption — eighteen consecutive editions that have made it the longest-running dedicated historic motorsport event in the United Kingdom. It is not a classic car meet. It is not an auction. It is a working paddock, opened to the public, where owners, restorers and racing pilots come together to do what they have always done: drive the cars they love, in front of people who understand them.
The 2026 edition returns to Donington Park for three full days of parade laps, partner-hosted grids, judged concours and trade halls stacked with period parts and signed memorabilia. Whether you arrive with a trailer, a notebook or simply an ear for a 12-cylinder engine at full chat, you are among people who chose to be here.
— The Editors, Historic Motorsport Show
Reference edition · 2024
The 2024 edition, by the numbers.
Verifiable figures from last year's running — the scale you can expect when the gates open in 2026.
1,247
Entered vehicles
Spanning 1900 to 1979, all verified period-correct
27,400
Visitors over three days
Average attendance across the 2024 edition
14
Ex-Formula 1 drivers
Joined by 22 Le Mans 24 Hours class winners
186
Trade exhibitor stands
Up from 42 stands in the inaugural 2007 edition
£412,000 raised for The Sir Henry Segrave Foundation since 2009.
On track
The grids: every era of the sport, reunited.
Five partner-hosted grids run across the weekend, each period-correct, each FIA-stewarded, each open to free paddock access with every ticket.
Featured grid
Masters Historic Racing
The headline series. Pre-1966 Grand Touring machinery from the most romantic era of the sport — Cobras, E-Types, 250 GTOs — run in anger by pilots who treat Donington's craner curves with the respect they deserve.
Read the grid brief →FIA Appendix K Saloons
Production-based saloons from 1947 to 1979, raced in period and rebuilt to FIA Appendix K specification. Mini Coopers, Lotus Cortinas, Ford Falcons and the unmistakable Ford Mustang notchback.
Grand Prix Motorcycle Arena
A dedicated motorcycle arena celebrating 1960s and 1970s Grand Prix machinery, with live demonstrations by ex-factory riders — Agostini-era MV Agustas, two-strokes from Suzuki, Yamaha and Honda.
Recognised · awarded · supported
An event the trade and the press have backed for nearly two decades.
★
Octane — Best Classic motorsport event
Category winner in the Octane magazine readers' poll in 2023 and 2024. Two years running, voted by the readership of Britain's most respected classic car title.
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Motor Sport Magazine — official media partner since 2011
Fifteen consecutive years of editorial partnership with the publication founded in 1924 — the oldest motorsport title in the world.
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The Telegraph — Top 10 British events for petrolheads
Featured in The Telegraph's 2023 list of the ten essential British events for enthusiasts of the internal combustion engine.
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The Sir Henry Segrave Foundation — £412,000 raised since 2009
Our official charity partner since the second edition. Every ticket, every programme, every concours entry contributes to the foundation's work supporting young British drivers.
Field notes · 2024
Inside the paddock.
Nine out of ten visitors step inside an active race-team garage. Paddock access is included with every ticket — bring your camera, bring your questions, and don't be surprised if the mechanic hands you a socket.
Three days. 600-plus verified period-correct vehicles. A paddock that opens its doors to you.
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