It was another challenging weekend for Finn Smart-Weeden for round four of the National Sportbike championship at Snetterton.

Painters Forstal resident Smart-Weeden had to work remotely with his crew chief who had been in hospital and ordered to rest by his doctors. Friday’s free practice sessions were held in dry but overcast conditions and the second section was cut short by a red flag.

The Queen Elizabeth’s Faversham Grammar School sixth form student struggled to get a good setup finding it difficult to turn the bike and maintain grip although as in previous rounds, his lap times improved every lap and every session but he was finishing further back in the field than he felt he should be.

More changes were made after sharing data with the crew chief who was working from home and qualifying took place in the rain. Finn qualified seventh – only two seconds behind the championship leader, Eduardo Colombi, where the gap between the front runner and last placed qualifier was sixteen seconds so the earlier changes had made a difference, but Finn still felt there was more to come.

Sunday’s race was rescheduled three times due to disruptions to other classes caused by the rain on Saturday. Finn got a great start off the line into fourth but was overtaken and was in fifth for the first corner.

Disaster struck at the hairpin when Finn went slightly  wide, missed his braking marker, was unable to make the corner and went on the grass – narrowly missing the championship leader when he did so. 17-year-old Finn managed to stay on the bike and rejoined the race at the back in 29th place and got his head down to salvage the situation.

He’d managed 25th by the end of the first lap and 16th by lap five but the gap of twelve and a half seconds to 15th was too big and would have required him to be running lap times more than two seconds a lap faster than the pack in front of him.

Speaking after the weekend, Fin said: “At the beginning of the weekend, the bike felt alien and my team worked really hard to make the set up changes we needed to get me running in the top ten and I was pleased to qualify seventh for the race.

“I got a great start but it all went a bit wrong when I made a small mistake at the hairpin and nearly lost it. I’m so glad I saved it and missed the championship leader but it meant I lost 10 seconds riding on the grass and although I got my head down and charged though the back of the pack, it just wasn’t enough and we go home without any points this weekend. Still, I have showed I can run with the top ten and we go again at Brands Hatch next round.”

The next round of the Pirelli National SportBike championship will be held this weekend at FatBoyFinn’s home track; Brands Hatch and will be supported by local businesses Nova IT Solutions, Maidstone Motoliner , KDC Body Repairs and Southern & Country Roofing. 

Friday will have two timed free practice sessions, a twenty five minute Qualifying session is on Saturday just before lunch on Saturday and the race is the penultimate session on Sunday. Tickets can be bought on the gate on the day or online at www.britishsuperbike.com beforehand for a discount.

Follow Finn on social media, @fatboyfinn14 on Facebook, @fatboy_finn on Instagram and @fatboy_finn14 on X.

Images courtesy of Frew MX Photography and Jade Goodison