After the long summer break and what amounted to little more than a testing session last time out in Germany, Kyle and the team are hoping to make more progress this weekend at Magny Cours.
Magny Cours Mission for Kyle Ryde
Since switching over to the Kawasaki, Kyle and the team have been working hard to get the bike setup and working exactly how they want, new parts have been added and others have been upgraded or replaced as the team look to give Kyle as competitive a package as possible.
To find out what your machine is capable of you have to ride it on the limit and the last session at the Lausitzring in Germany was a great example of this. Sunday’s race showed that yet more work was needed after Kyle began to experience chattering from the front end of the bike when pushing it to it’s absolute limits. Obviously, these problems can crop up at any time and we are hopeful that the work done on the bike since Germany will help alleviate the problem.
It’s fair to say that Kyle and the team performed admirably under difficult circumstances in Germany and a look at the race data shows that Kyle was at least consistent with his lap times and top speed throughout the race, achieving an average top speed of 252.8kmh on four of his 19 laps (Sofuoglu failed to break the 250kmh barrier) It’s hoped that the bikes straight line speed can be utilised better once the aforementioned handling issues have been resolved.
We have to mention at this point, that the trip to France presents something of a problem because it’s Kyles first time here and inexperience of the track could be a factor. Couple this with a rainy forecast and changeable conditions and it could be a difficult weekend for Kyle as he battles to get to grips with the Magny Cours Circuit.
Kyle will be well supported in France however with his family travelling over from Jacksdale for the event. Also travelling over is Robert Heelan who’s company Smart Solution Ltd are a valued sponsor of Kyles.
It’s hoped that Kyle will take to the circuit quickly so that he can start to express his own and the bikes potential but with so many new things to take on board it’s going to be tough. We spoke to Kyle before he left for France and he left us with these words:
I’m really looking forward to riding at Magny Cours, it’s somewhere I’ve always wanted to race and it’s going to be a real challenge but we’re hoping for a place in the points on Sunday.
It’s a very technical circuit with a lot of turns so we might do alright as long as we can get a good set up early on.
Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours
The Grand Prix track of Magny-Cours, with a length of 4.411 meters, has hosted the French F1 Grand Prix since 1991, and the Bol d’Or since 2000. The track was redesigned in 2003 and is constantly being improved and updated.
Motorsports have become a local tradition in Magny-Cours! Since it was set up 40 years ago, the small karting track evolved rapidly into a race track of national status hosting the first racing driver school in France (the Winfield school) which has produced over 30 F1 drivers, the track further bolstered it’s F1 credentials with the arrival of the French F1 Grand Prix in 1991 but was later removed from the F1 calendar due to safety concerns.
Magny Cours no longer hosts F1 racing and it looks like there are no future plans to do so. This has shifted the focus of the circuit towards varying forms of Motorsport on two and four wheels with the main international event on the Magny Cours calendar being this weekends visit of the World Superbikes championship.
There are other notable motorcycling event at Magny Cour such as the 12 heures de Magny Cours endurance race and the visit of the French Superbike Championship but the visit of WSBK to this part of the world is the biggest draw for fans of two wheeled racing.
Best places to watch
There are very good vantage points for spectators all around the track but it seems the favourite spot for most is the Adelaide hairpin at the end of the back straight.
The place not to watch is the final corner “Lycee” it’s a slow corner that precedes the start of the pit lane and is by some accounts rather pedestrian.
If you plan to stay for the weekend…..Camping is available on site but reports online lead us to believe some of the facilities aren’t up to what you might have experienced at other larger venues.
Getting to Magny Cours
Magny-Cours is located in central France, approximately 260km south of Paris and 240km north west of Lyon, near to the city of Nevers.
The nearest airport of significance is Clermont-Ferrand Auvergne Airport, around 1 hour 50 minutes drive to the south. Paris-Orly is further still – around 2 hours 15 minutes to the north. For light aviation and private jets Nevers-Fourchambault Airport is around 30 minutes drive to the north.
Access by road is via A77 from the north and N7 from the south . Regular train services run from Paris and Lyon to Nevers, making flights to either of these cities a good way to arrive.
Magny Cours Weather
Friday looks to be warm and wet with temperatures in the low 20’s Celsius and light winds but it does look like there is a significant chance of rain in the afternoon and throughout the evening.
How does this affect the racing? free Practice 1 should hopefully be dry but the afternoons FP2 session has around a 45% chance of seeing some rain.
Saturday Morning is also looking damp as the previous nights rain takes it’s time to pass, the mornings FP3 and Superpole races are both at risk of being wet with a predicted 50% chance of rain.
Sunday looks to be the pick of the bunch with mostly sunny conditions and very little chance of rain.
Don’t miss any of the action
Kyle first takes to the track on Friday morning at 10:30 am for the first of the days free practice sessions. The second of these hour long practice sessions comes just after Lunch at 13:45, Unfortunately there’s no TV live coverage of Fridays action but you can keep up with progress by downloading the free WSBK app for live timing and an interactive circuit map.
Saturday morning gets underway for Kyle at 08:15 am UK time with FP3 session and just a couple of hours later we see the Superpole 1 and Superpole 2 races at 10:30 and 10:55 respectively. Hopefully Kyle can force his way into Superpole 2 in practice to give himself a better starting position for Sundays race.
Sunday sees a quick 15 minute warm up at 8am UK time before the feature race of the Supersport weekend gets underway at 10:20am. Fingers crossed we’ll see some more Championship points by the time this weekend is over.
TV Schedule
You can catch all of the action this weekend on Eurosport with live programmes starting at 09:15am on Saturday on Eurosport 2 and on Sunday live coverage will be broadcast on Eurosport 2 starting at 10am. Kyles race will be live from 10:20 am on Sunday.
There are numerous highlights programmes on offer across Saturday, Sunday and the following week so you’ll have ample time to catch at least some of the televised action this weekend. You can see a full run down of the coming weeks programmes here
Sponsorship
We try to take a pragmatic approach to rider funding so, we are always looking for new and innovative ways of keeping Kyle on track. To this end we have started trialling paid referrals for our site visitors and fans. Here’s how it works.
If one of you guys clicks the Quote Zone link at the top of the website or the one shown below and go on to buy your car, home bike or other insurance with Quote Zone, Kyle receives a small commission on the sale.
Quote Zone are an insurance comparison site like Go Compare etc and you can help Kyle by doing nothing more than updating your insurance! Quote Zone provide very competitive quotes for a range of insurance and will hopefully be able to save you some money in the process.