The 13th Classic Japanese and European Classic Bike Show will take place on Saturday and Sunday 16th & 17th June in the Exhibition hall and outside on hardstanding at Donington Park, Castle Donington, Derbs. As the last issue of Classic Motorcycle Mechanics so succinctly put it “The Donington show has suffered a bit of bad luck over the last few years”. Indeed it has with snow forcing a cancellation in 2009, the venue closing for 2010-11 and the one day of snow we suffered in the first three months of 2012 coming overnight on Sat 4th February. However looking on the bright side we did have an excellent turn out on Saturday, around 95% of the exhibitors stayed in place for the Sunday despite everyone knowing we were due a heavy fall of snow and remarkably we had 400 visitors on Sunday, approximately 398 more than I thought would turn up when we arrived at Donington at 7am on Sunday to see a total white out. If you were one of the hardy souls who braved the extreme cold on Saturday and the snow on Sunday we are very grateful for your enthusiasm and commitment to the show.
Last summer we attended the show run by the VJMC at Uttoxeter in early July and thought it was an excellent event with lots of trade and autojumble and plenty of bikes on display. We have no idea why the club has decided not to do it again this year but do know that lots of enthusiasts and traders did feel that this would leave a big hole in their show diaries for 2012. We did canvass opinion at Donington in February as to if we should try to run a replacement event at Donington this summer and concept was greeted with almost universal approval from traders and enthusiasts alike. We have therefore hired Donington Park over the weekend of 16th & 17th June 2012 and will invite European & British classics as well as Japanese classics to make up the displays and private entries. There will be camping available over the weekend on the site with full details to follow soon so we look forward to seeing you at Donington Park in June, hopefully in warmer weather with a lot less snow! We are confident that this will be the one to get Donington Park back on track after four years of bad luck and bad weather, plus don’t forget we will also be back at Donington on 16th September and 30th December 2012 for our classic car & bike shows & jumbles.
