Circuit Paul Armagnac Nogaro

The Circuit Paul Armagnac at Nogaro in the Gers opened on 3 October 1960 and was, according to Wikipedia, the first permanent race circuit in France; it is named after the Nogaro-born racing driver Paul Armagnac, who was killed in 1962. The current form dates from 1989: the operator gives a total length of 3636 metres, 14 corners - five left, nine right - a track width of 14 metres and a straight of roughly one kilometre running alongside the neighbouring aerodrome. Wikipedia lists the circuit as FIA Grade 2. Events include the Grand Prix de Nogaro and rounds of the French Superbike Championship. If you hold no race licence, what matters most is that the operator runs around 24 club days a year, twelve of them for motorcycles, and that those days are explicitly open to unlicensed riders as well; evening open-track sessions come on top. The character comes from the layout: two long straights linked by sections of several slow corners, with only six metres between the highest and lowest point. So you reach high speed twice a lap and have to keep the bike calm there even though the next hard braking zone is already in sight. Top of our cause list for weave and instability at high speed on a straight is a ride-height and sag balance that is off with the rear too high - set sag properly first, before you touch damping or a steering damper.