Tegiwa Donington Rally 2025

Choices, choices – photographing the Tegiwa Donington Rally 2025

Castle Combe stage rally, Donington Rally, Johnson Sporting Trial, Hednesford Raceway … What’s a boy to do on a late November weekend. In the end, I plumped for Donington. I’d been before and whilst I am not so keen on the restricted infield viewing these days, I was encouraged to see from the downloadable programme that all the stages would take the circuit anti-clockwise. Meaning that the gaps in the fences were to the spectator snapper’s advantage.

Better still the forecast promised sunshine and clear skies – so the crew’s faces would be illuminated from the right shooting locations. The drive up the M1 was promising and, given the alignment of that road, I had a fabulous sunrise in my rear-view mirror. The plan for the day was simple. Start at Redgate and work my way round the circuit clockwise; then retrace my steps.

Donington Park Redgate

I was not to be disappointed at Redgate where the gap in the fence at the corner gave me a great shot. The split at the corner – keep right for the first two passes, then left towards the infield on the third seemed to cause some confusion for the Chevette crew. Storm Stacey, finding some winter fun away from the two wheels of BSB. Storm had no such problems in his quickly driven and distinctive Fiesta. He’s also just passed his ARDS test for circuit racing. So who knows what is in store – it’s a well-trodden path for some…

Donington Park Craner Curves – Old Hairpin

Heading down the Craner Curves opens all the possibilities you might imagine from a shy MX5 to a very well presented Astra GTE.

With temperatures not that far above freezing the damp track was only slowly drying out. However, with the sunshine warm on my back and lots of layers – and keeping out of the occasionally keen breeze – it was pleasant as I was soon at the Old Hairpin where the track was still ready to catch out the unwary.

At this point I should say that I was using the 500mm prime lens for all these shots. Attaching a 1.4x teleconverter from time to time giving a 700mm focal length. There is a really nice shot back towards McLeans from Schwantz. The light, whilst bright and leaving deep shadows was at the right angle. A little lifting of shadows in post processing seems to do the trick.

Turning round and taking advantage of the long focal length available, I grabbed this shot of the infield section from Schwantz.

Donington Park McLeans

McLeans allows for an illustration of fence or no fence. The Mitsubishi and Clio were shot sans fence; the Escort was shot through the fence. Arguably the Escort is the better action shot, but you can see the characteristic softness that the fence can bring.

There’s a neat shot over the gate at McLeans exit. Or shoot through the fence of the rear of the cars mid corner.

Time to start back towards the Old Hairpin having taken lunch on one of the benches overlooking McLeans answering a few emails. I also posted a photo to social media of Donington Hall. This is the former home of BMI and Norton and being re-developed by new owners MSV who run Donington. I think I need to update my phone…

Donington Park Tegiwa Donington Rally Infield

For the final two stages, I ventured to the infield via the tunnel near Garage 39 in the paddock with the 70-200mm zoom on the camera now. The downside of this very different part of the stage is that the competitors only do this area once to the stage finish.

Then I thought, time for some experimenting. Some of these shots are marmite – see what you think. Is Hamilton moonlighting in the #44 Nova behind the fence at Redgate? It might be better than his current prancing horse! Then, hey turn round and for the first time ever shoot through the fence on pit straight. The Escort is taken at 1/60^th / 70mm / f6.3 / ISO500 and what is unmistakeably a BMW is shot at 1/10^th / 200mm / f11 / ISO500.

Back to the infield where spectators are shooting from high above the loose surface track.

There had been only a sliver of sunset as clouds rolled in so it’s now properly dark. Modern cameras are really very good …

That concludes my review of the Tegiwa Donington Rally 2025. The next round of the Circuit Rally championship is at Brands Hatch on Saturday 17^th January. The CRC returns to Donington on March 15^th 2026.

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