This post is O/T...a FWIW post...but it still is related to the Bira Circuit Track.
I ride by the track often and always wondered where the name 'Bira' came from. None of the Thai's I know knew the answer. Recently, I found out that 'Bira' was the name of Thailand's only Formula One race driver.
Story below:
Bira is named after Thailands only Formula One driver, although it was some time ago. Prince Birabongse Bhanutej Bhanubandh
Nationality: Siam
Date of birth: July 15, 1914 - Bangkok
Date of death: December 23, 1985 - London
Prince Birabongse Bhanutej Bhanubandh was a member of Siam's royal family and was a grandson of King Mongkut, who opened the country to Western influence in the late 19th century and was made famous by the musical comedy, "The King and I". As a result the Siamese royal family became closely linked with Britain and in 1927 - at the age of 13 - Prince Bira was sent from Siam to attend the most famous of all British public schools - Eton College. While he was there there was a revolution in Siam and after considerable disruption including several coups d'etat and other conspiracies King Prajadhipok - the Prince's uncle - was forced to abdicate. Prince Bira decided to stay in England and went on to study at Cambridge University. Another Siamese Prince - Bira's cousin, Prince Chula Chakrabongse, ran a racing team called White Mouse Racing and the 21-year-old Bira thought he might try his hand at motor racing.
In 1936 Chula's White Mouse team purchased an ERA for Bira to drive and he quickly became one of the leading exponents of this voiturette class of international racing, winning the Coup de Prince Rainier at Monte Carlo. He proved consistently successful up to the war. At the same time he met and married an Englishwoman. When war broke out Thailand (as Siam had become in 1939) was occupied by the Japanese army and so Bira decided to stay in Britain, living quietly in a cottage in Cornwall. When the war was over the 31-year-old Prince decided to re-establish White Mouse Racing. There was little motor racing in England in the immediate postwar years and he eventually closed the team and went to race in Europe driving a Maserati for Enrique Plate's private team. He briefly joined the HWM team, then Gordini and OSCA, but by 1953 he was driving his own 2-liter Maserati AC which he painted in the distinctive blue and yellow livery which were Thailand's international racing colors. Bira later became one of the first private entrants to order one of the new Maserati250Fs but while his new car was being completed he raced his 1954 machine with a new 2.5-liter engine installed. He used this to win the Grand Prix des Frontieres on the Chimay road circuit in southern Belgium and then finished fourth in theFrench Grand Prix at Reims with the new 250F. Bira raced to the end of the 1954 season when he married for the second time and scored his final victory with the 250F in the non-championship New Zealand Grand Prix before retiring. Thereafter he returned to live in Thailand although he maintained a European base in the form of a three-masted schooner berthed at Cannes, close to his other home, Villa les Faunes, at Mandelieu. A versatile and cultured man, Bira died on a London underground station after suffering a heart attack.
Bira was built in 1985 and covers an area of 165 Rai, its located on the Rayong Bypass road near the Siam country club. Its currently owned by the Grandprix group Co Ltd. To be honest I don't know if they make any money out of it as there are only about 10 race meetings on a year plus of course they do private hires. On Sundays if its not booked, you can take your bike you have hired on the beach Rd and flog it around there for 500 baht for a morning. Personally despite its faults, I like the circuit, I have done many hundreds of laps around there so know it quite well. Its safety compromises are many, on most corners if you run off you are into solid concrete, although over the last year they put some tires around so now you get a bit of reprieve before the concrete. The track itself is 2.4 kms long so its not a long one; the main straight is about 800 Meters long.
So, now you know....
