Finn Smart-Weeden was in the top six for round seven of the Pirelli National SportBike Championship, last time out at Cadwell Park.
The August Bank Holiday weekend saw Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School sixth Form student, Smart-Weeden, compete at one of his favourite tracks in Cadwell Park.
Although he had competed here since 2020 with the Bemsee and NG club championships taking more than a dozen wins on his Kawasaki Ninja400 and Triumph 675, this was his first BSB outing to Cadwell Park.
This weekend FatBoyFinn also had to do it with a reduced team as his dad, who fulfils the chief technical officer role in the team, was instead supporting big brother Tom Weeden at the Classic TT on the Isle of Man.
Saturday’s weather was cold and raining and the morning practice saw only 14 of the 27 registered rides opting to go out. Towards the end of the session, Finn crashed at the hairpin trapping his thigh under the handlebar and being dragged down the track. The team worked hard to repair the bike and the Painter’s Forstal resident being declared medically fit to ride, he opted to do only four laps in the afternoon practice session just to check the bike was fully functional again – which it was.
The weather improved and Sunday morning’s early qualifying session saw Finn finish tenth, behind the usual suspects and only 0.2 seconds off his ideal lap time.
The SportBike class was the first race scheduled for Monday morning, it was red-flagged on the 2nd lap leaving oil all over the track – and the restart was delayed by 26 minutes while the track was cleaned up. Finn got a good start for the and was fighting in the 2nd pack for most of the race. He eventually finished 6th nearly 10 seconds ahead of 7th, being careful after his pitboard told him in the penultimate lap that 5th was almost impossible.
The 17 year old has moved up to 10th in the championship standing, with 3 rounds and 4 races to go, and is looking forward to a 2nd outing to Oulton Park 13-15th September.
Speaking after the weekend, Finn said “I have no idea what happened in Saturday’s practice session when I crashed out but the track conditions weren’t good with only half of the registered riders opting to take part.
“I was lucky that I didn’t sustain any real injury, and the medical staff did a great job taping my leg up to get me out for the remainder of the weekend. I had a great race on Sunday- fighting in the second pack and a long way ahead of the following rider.
“This equals my best finish to date, this season, and after struggling with technical problems early in the season, I’m happy to be in tenth overall, in my rookie season, in this class. Three rounds to go and I’m looking to keep the momentum I’ve built up.”
Images courtesy of
Glyn’s photos 07 –
Tracey Dove 01 –
Millie Holbrough 01 –
PhotoStrada 01 –
Photostrada 02 –