The birth of the WorldSBK championship took place over the first few days of April in an era known to racing archeologists as ‘ The Eighties ’. 1988 to be precise . The child that was born back then has grown up to become a strapping production-derived 33 year old , celebrating a form of official birthday here this weekend . The mother , the Donington Park circuit itself , is still living happily in the English East Midlands and is as attentive to the needs of her WorldSBK family as ever , as this weekend ’ s WorldSBK race on Saturday will be the 55th individual WorldSBK competition run at Donington . Only Assen , Misano and Phillip Island have hosted more WorldSBK races than Donington , and not very many more . The 4.023km long Donington circuit is located in the English East Midlands , which is not so much of a nowhere land between the real ‘ North ’ and the start of the extended Birmingham mega-conurbation as an everywhere land . Consider where Donington is located . The M1 , Britain ’ s first Motorway , provides a major communications artery two or three miles past the main entrance of the track . East Midlands Airport , the second busiest cargo centre in the entire UK after Heathrow , is literally next door . Significant UK cities like Leicester , Nottingham and Derby can all call Donington their home racetrack . Strange as it sounds the edge of the track is only metres inside the border of Leicestershire but it has a Derbyshire postcode … it ’ s in two places at once . Weird and ancient East Midlands magic in the air , clearly . Birmingham , home city of one JRR Tolkien and what feels like half of the British Empire ’ s former manufacturing might at one time , is not too distant either . That ’ s a lot of population centres ringing Donington Park ’ s immediate locale . Situated far from the sea but connected to everywhere else by land and air , Donington is such a fixture for WorldSBK that it is easy to forget that just a few years ago the whole place had excavation scars all over its surface . An ambitious attempt to become the only race venue in the UK to host Formula One to host Formula One , MotoGP™ and WorldSBK races ended suddenly