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Donington Trackday 30 May 2012-05-25

It is with deep regret that we have unfortunately had to cancel this event at Donington Park.

The reason for this is as follows.

The situation with drive by noise at Donington Park in 2012 is this. A quiet Trackday has a drive by limit of 98 db measured from a sound meter on the pit wall and possibly further measuring devices around the circuit. All circuits have noise restrictions imposed on them by their Local Authority and unfortunately for Donington, particularly oddly as they are next to an airport, their noise limits are quite low on these “quiet” days.

This year, imposing these limits are clear in that if a car exceeds 98db it will be black flagged. The driver has the opportunity to quieten the car. If this does not work successfully they will not be allowed on track for the rest of the event. This is non negotiable. Our days at Donington are advertised as 98db days on our website and on various listing websites and Trackday broker sites. Our confirmation email that is sent to all attendees prior to the event states this noise policy clearly. This policy is repeated in the safety briefing.

At a recent event we experienced a number of black flag incidents within the first hour. We assisted these drivers with noise reducing exhaust inserts that can reduce drive by noise by up to 3db in some cases. In some cases this worked and in some it did not. A few of the cars were asked to finish due to this, a Peugeot 306, a Chevron recreation race car which had quiet and new exhausts fitted especially for the event, 2 Porsche 911 turbos, both standard and less than 2 years old and a Noble M400. A couple of the black flagged cars were adequately silenced and were allowed to continue, these included a Mazda MX5, a Ford Focus RS and a BMW 325i racecar. We were warned that if we got any more noise violations the event would finish, all cars removed from the track regardless of how loud they were. After this there were the odd noise incident and a technical stoppage was enforced meaning all cars left the track until we were able to ask the offending driver to leave. In every other Trackday I have done at Donington, this includes a number of events we organised there in 2011 and 15 years of trackdays I have attended at the circuit as a customer this has never happened. In all cases, the offending car was black flagged and the other cars were left to use the circuit as before.

Because of this we were imposed a zero tolerance policy on noise at all our future trackdays at Donington. We have been asked to pay a £3000 bond and if 1 car exceeded the 98db noise reading the bond would be held by the circuit. Furthermore the circuit owners could shut the circuit for the rest of the day with nil refund. On analysis of the noise data, some specific cars were mentioned as having exceeded the limit and in a number of cases the cause of the breach was classed as “group” This means a number of cars pass the meter and the cumulative noise exceeded 98db. We were not prepared to accept the additional terms and did not want to risk the day being cut short if there was an infringement which in reality, we have no real control of. In effect we had to cancel the event together with all our other trackdays at Donington Park. We have not taken this decision lightly.

We set up in business last year and from doing 15 events last year we planned to increase this to over 20 this year. We have never before cancelled a Trackday. In a number of cases in our first year numbers for certain events have been very low and we have lost significant amounts on a day. We would not cancel the event though as customers have set aside time and money for these events and we are 100% committed to ensure our customers have an enjoyable, safe and good value experience on our days.

We will be looking to replace the days now cancelled however we will offer a full refund or credit note if preferred for the amount you have paid for this event, including, where applicable garages or additional driver costs for the full value. In the event of a full refund being requested, this can be by way of a cheque by return or a direct payment into your account.

We have tried frantically to book another track for Wednesday as a replacement but have been un-successful. We have also checked other events on the 30th and have noticed a day at Cadwell Park in Lincolnshire advertised through www.trackdays.co.uk ; which may be of interest. This is not being run by ourselves.

We are extremely sorry to have cancelled this at such short notice but this only happened today. Please be assured that you will receive our best attention at all times, and for the customers who have not used us before, we sincerely hope to see you again during the year.

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Originally posted by scott d
commercial interests...

if noise was a problem surely a 3 day festival and 60,000+ people at donny park would not be allowed.

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Originally posted by Ian


I know they were bad when I was last there, we actually had to pause the briefing while a plane flew over, but you drive a standard car around there if its mildly noisy.

Ridiculous.

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Originally posted by Ojc
Getting well beyond a joke these noise regs, as long as its not 7am on a Sunday what's the problem?

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Originally posted by LeeM
Fucking dickheads complaining.
If I worked for the council or whatever and someone got in touch complaining my first question would be "did you buy your house before the track was built?" no? Shut the fuck up then

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Originally posted by Ben J
How can a standard Porker GT3 be too loud? That same Porker could drive up and down the road right outside the houses nearby, quite legally, whilst beig ragged at 7000rpm. What would they do then?

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