Motor Racing: Wheatcroft's vision remains undimmed: Donington's guiding light sets sights on British Grand Prix while Williams rue Prost's excess caution

RAIN was still lashing the Donington Park circuit and reliable estimates suggested that the event had left him pounds 1m out of pocket, but Tom Wheatcroft had the jovial countenance of a Dickensian benefactor and he was asking for more.

The man who campaigned for 22 years to bring a Formula One world championship race to his East Midlands track was undeterred by the cost of fulfilling his ambition on Sunday. Having lost the toss of a coin which determined the price when he bought the place, he insisted he was willing to pursue his gamble to make this a regular, and profitable, theatre for grand prix motor racing. The organisation of the Grand Prix of Europe has been applauded and, after proving the circuit's capabilities, Wheatcroft will explore the possibility of further races before challenging for the British Grand Prix when Silverstone's exclusive contract ends in 1996.

Donington officials claimed Sunday's crowd was around 50,000; they had hoped for at least 80,000. But then the bad weather and the Nigel Mansell factor did not help. Wheatcroft recovered only about three-quarters of the pounds 3.9m he put up.

He said: 'I'm positive we can do a better job than Silverstone. I've turned everything in my life into a profit-making exercise, and I would this. I was told we couldn't make a success of the British Motorcycle Grand Prix but we have done. What this race cost was worth it.

'I never dreamt we'd have a wet practice day and wet race. If you look on the black side you'd never do anything. Everything went against us. We had only a short time to prepare, and had no good publicity until the last month. The problem was we had negative publicity from Alain Prost and Nigel Mansell, and there's been so much talk about IndyCars.

'Ayrton Senna congratulated us on our organisation after the race and all the drivers voted it a success. We had no red flags here. I didn't want to say anything to Fisa or Foca about another race until I knew everything was all right at this one. Now I know it is I shall go to them and tell them we want more.'

The rain may have drastically reduced Sunday's crowd but it served to provide an extraordinarily eventful race and may, in the long term, prove a blessing in disguise for Wheatcroft. Whether he can oust Silverstone is another matter. He is competing against history and, so far, greater investment. The politics involved represent another area again.

It might, however, serve all parties to give Donington another European race, preferably on an early autumn date, before 1996. Then a better judgement should be possible.

Prost must still have his reservations about Donington. As in Brazil, he was put out of his stride by the rain, while Senna again turned it to his advantage and won with immense authority in the McLaren-Ford.

Senna now leads Prost by 12 points in the world championship and although a change in the weather is likely to alter the complexion of the contest, there is undisguised dismay in the Williams-Renault camp about Prost's performances. The Frenchman slid off after delaying a necessary switch to wet tyres at Interlagos and was in too much of a hurry to change at Donington: he made seven tyre stops compared with Senna's four.

Prost's boss, Frank Williams, said: 'All tyre choices were initiated and motivated by the driver. Any suggestion that anybody else made those decisions is completely untrue. There is no way a team can sit on the pit wall and participate in these changes. They have got no idea what is going on out there.

'It is obvious that Alain made a very clever tactical change on to dry tyres but threw it away with a vastly premature change back to wets and that was the end of the race. It surprised me that a driver of Alain's experience should make those mistakes, but he doesn't like the wet and he is cautious. It takes a lot to make a summer. There are a lot of hot days to come. Just watch him for the rest of the season.'

No one in the team, least of all Williams, would admit it, but it just may be that they are regretting the loss of Mansell.

(Photograph omitted)

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