Chris Evans buys Dunlop Bridge for £300

Radio DJ and television presenter Chris Evans has bought the well-known Dunlop bridge from Donington Park racing circuit.

He won the, er, item in a charity auction of racing memorabilia, and reputedly paid around £300. As if running his own pair of CarFest car shows wasn’t proof of his enthusiasm enough…

The Chris Evans car collection

Chris Evans’ CarFest North in pictures

The Donington Park Dunlop bridge dates from 1977, and famously takes the form of a tyre. It looped over the track until 2009, when it was removed during renovations intended to attract Formula 1 racing back to the circuit.

It’s since been languishing in pieces at an on site storage facility. And it’s still there now – as Evans presently has no idea how to get it home, or indeed where to put it when he does.

The lot purchased consists of the 16 panel pieces that form the decorative Dunlop advertisement, rather than the bridge structure itself. Even so, once assembled this spans over 70 metres in length.

The bridge has become a major talking point on his BBC Radio 2 breakfast show, where he’s not only joked that he’s thinking about erecting it in his back garden, over a neighbouring house, but also revealed that his wife isn’t exactly best pleased with the acquisition.

Although some listeners have appealed to Evans to leave it where it is, or lease it back to the circuit, clearly it wouldn’t have been in the auction if Donington Park didn’t want shot of the thing.

Any and all suggestions concerning what to do with it – or indeed how to transport it – will presumably be gratefully received.

Evans bought the bridge during a Bonhams sale on behalf of the Leicestershire charity Hope Against Cancer.

Image (c) PA

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