Finn Smart-Weeden rounded off the Pirelli National SportBike Championship season in positive fashion at his home circuit of Brands Hatch last weekend.
FatBoyFinn rounded off with a sixth place finish in race one in challenging conditions on Saturday. He followed that up with a ninth place finish in race two, all this despite a lacklustre practice and qualifying sessions. It means he finishes the season in ninth place overall in the standings.
First order of the weekend was a new clutch to replace the one that had failed during the Donington Park round. The team woke to ice on the windows on Friday morning with track temperatures of just 5°C and the Pirelli National SportBike class were the first session of Friday morning.
Faversham’s Finn Smart-Weeden concentrated on just checking that the clutch was working – looking to avoid a repeat of the previous round. It had warmed up a bit for the second practice session and Finn was able to improve his laptimes and finished 13th.
Saturday morning’s qualifying session saw much improved weather conditions, at least 5°C warmer than Friday morning but still the first session of the day. Seventeen year old Finn qualified 16th and knowing he had to work hard to get a good result in the first race, which was to take place that afternoon.
During the warm up lap before the race it started to rain and the race was red flagged before it even began!
The organisers declared a wet race with quick start procedure for the restart which was delayed by 20 minutes. Despite the potential risks, Finn’s crew chief determined the best option was to remain on dry tyres, a handful of other racers changed to wet tyres due to concerns about how wet the track might be especially under the trees in the back section.
The Queen Elizabeths’ Grammar School Faversham’s sixth form student got a good start but was careful for the first few laps while sussing out the track conditions, posting laptimes around four seconds slower than the front runners but then pulled the pin, passing several riders who had chosen to run wet tyres and improving his laptimes so he was just a couple of seconds slower than the leading pack and getting faster every lap.
Finn finished the race in a very convincing sixth place and posted the sixth fastest lap which put him on the second row for Sunday’s race.
The team knew that sixth would be a challenge to hold onto as there were riders who normally beat Finn starting further back after choosing wet tyres for Saturday’s race. He did give it his best shot.
He had a great launch off the start line but was baulked by another rider and nearly pushed into the pit wall so had to pull back momentarily.
Despite this, the Painter’s Forstal resident stayed with the front pack for the first few laps. By lap three Finn was in tenth, a position he held for the rest of the race, beating his previous best lap time set in better conditions at the Brands Hatch round held earlier in the year and finishing convincingly ahead of the 11th placed rider after twelve laps. Following a disqualification post race, Finn was promoted to ninth place.
Finn finishes the season ninth in the championship. A year on a new bike and in a new championship that has thrown many challenges at Finn.
Technical problems and crashes saw him only finish nine of the season’s fifteen races but, of those, eight were top ten finishes. All but one of the riders finishing ahead of Finn in the championship were older and more experienced, so a result to be proud of.
Speaking at the end of the season, Finn said: “Of course I would have liked to have finished higher in the championship and without the technical challenges, that might have been possible.
“It has definitely been a learning year and I look forward to doing better next season. I would like to thank my team, my crew chief Paul Fryer, my mechanics; Daren Savage, Steve Frizzell and of course my dad Steve Weeden, my mum Georgia for keeping the team fed and clothed and Dave Hewson and Rob Farmer at Obsession Engineering.
“As always LS2, Scott Leathers and Knox Armour have kept my body in one piece. I’d also like to help all of my other personal sponsors who help keep the dream alive”
Images courtesy of:
- BSB 24 11 Brands Brown 01 – Finn at Surtees in race 2 – photo credit: Lewis Brown
- BSB 24 11 Brands Enfield 01 – Finn race 1 – photo credit: Richard Enfield
- BSB 24 11 Brands Georgia 02 – Finn and crew chief in parc fermé after race 1- photo credit : Georgia Smart
- BSB 24 11 Brands PhotoStrada 01 –Finn coming out of Surtees race 1 – photo credit: PhotoStrada