Bira Circuit

Bira Circuit sits near Pattaya in Chonburi province and is run by Bira Circuit One Co. Ltd. according to racingcircuits.info. The venue was built in 1985 as the Pattaya Circuit and was renamed shortly afterwards for Prince Birabongse Bhanudej Bhanubandh, Thailand's first Formula 1 driver, who had died a short time before. The international course measures 2.410 km, and the same site also holds a karting circuit rebuilt to CIK standards in 2006, an offroad track and a rally stage. The main grandstand takes up to 30,000 people, and the facility includes pit garages, a control tower and a medical centre. Series raced here include the Thailand Super Series and Asian Formula 2000. On its own site the operator also presents the circuit as a venue for product launches and for car and tyre testing; driving schools and test programmes run as private bookings. No fixed public riding times or fees are documented. The layout is compact and U-shaped: short straights, several chicanes and a relatively fast downhill double-apex corner. Racingcircuits.info calls the surface bumpy, and the hot, humid conditions add their own load on concentration and stamina. Our record lists a tight, technical character, and that is how it rides - you keep repositioning the bike and rarely get a section that simply flows. If the bike then pushes over the front wheel and refuses to turn into the tight corners, top of our cause list is geometry that is too lazy with the front end riding too high - more fork protrusion through the clamps sharpens turn-in.