Administration

In France, you need to have Federation Francaise de Moto racing license category NAT A. In order to obtain this you need first to be a holder of a CASM (Certificat d’aptitude de Sport Mechanique). The CASM tests you on basic bike skills, plus the rules and regulations around a circuit – including flags. In order to apply to the CASM you need to get a local address of your regional representative, which for me was in the Dauphine. I phone this guy and he registered me for a CASM test, which I eventually took in a center in the nearby DROME area. Due to the fact that I had a current motorcycle road license I did not have to take the practical test, however it’s useful to know that if your kids want to take up racing of any sort they can go via this route.

In order to get the FFM license you need to be a member of a French Association affiliated with the FFM. The PROCLASSIC association is part of the FFM, and therefore they sent me all the necessary forms to fill in and the list of documents to provide. Basically you need to have, proof of identity, a CASM, proof of address, plus a document from your National Motorcycle racing association proving that you are allowed to hold a French license. To supply this, I needed to contact the ACU in the UK, and they faxed me the correct document basically stating that I had never been banned from having a racing license in the UK. I sent this lot off with the appropriate amount of cheques (!!), and I received my license a couple of weeks on.