I got my photo’s back from the Nogaro trackday trip, and I thought I’d post a few and let you know how it went.
First of all, if you’ve never been to Nogaro, I highly recommend making the effort. The track is about 2.5 miles long and has a great selection of corners. Including flat stick kinks, a decreasing radius 230deg *******, hairpins, double apexes – the lot. And an excellent straight for some good high speeds – with a hairpin at the end. The surface is very smooth with few bumps and extremely grippy.
I had a prob with my battery on arrival, but got that sorted with help of the nearby race team and F1 mechanics school. They stripped the battery out of their 999 race bike on the condition that I got it back by 6pm the next day (Tues), as the bike was racing at Carole (near Paris) on the Wednesday. And they wouldn’t take a penny - sound blokes.
With so many corners it took a while to get any kind of line around the track and I joined the intermediate group so I wouldn’t get in the way of the quick guys – and there were some quick guys there. The lap record is 1min 33, Mike Chapman (ZX-10) was doing 1-44s and there was a French R1 doing 1-36s!!! Somehow I forgot to record my lap times – bother.
The Team Taylor breakfast bar provided munchies, Byrne-Up provided track and accommodation and the weather was p-e-r-f-e-c-t.
So, brilliant track, brilliant trip and thanks to my mate Rob Currie who drove the van – he won’t read this (R1 rider), but he deserves a mention anyway.
Desmondo - 1.46's is f-f-fast. It'll be while before I'm up to that speed. BTW, the lap record is held by a 749.
Mr_S - As an alternative to Carole you should try Val de Vienne, near Poitier. It's a much bigger and better track, full facilities, blah, blah, blah. Seriously, it's a great track and I'm going there with Byrne-Up 17th July for 2 days. I've done Val now about 10 times - 2.7 miles, 2 big straights, 17(!) corners, proper pits.
Linear Mode
