Rider Spotlight - British Junior Supersport
Name: Adam Brown
DOB: 21 Jun 05
Born: Craigavon
Lives: Dungannon
Number: 33
Team: Completely Motorbikes Kawasaki
Favourite Riders Jonathan Rea/Carl Fogarty
Favourite Music Country
HEL Performance Junior Supersport Debut: 7th April 23
History:
DM Groundworks & FJS Plant Junior Supersport
Southern Star Junior Supersport Champion 2022
Pre-amble
In previous years the PistonClick team have followed a number of racers and teams as they progress through a seasons championship. Generally we will looks for something different about a team or rider that stands out for us as spectator photographers.
This year is no exception, one of the riders in the British Junior Supersport has come to our attention, Adam Brown. We have no affiliation with him or the team but will be focusing our lenses on this young man as the season progresses and competes in the support races of the British Superbike championship. This is his story so far.
Official Test 04 – Silverstone 6th April 23
Test Session 1
It was a cold wet start to the official test for Adam, who has little to no experience of riding in the wet, treated the session as a learning experience getting to know the bike and the track. Although they are riding on the National Circuit at 1.6 miles, it’s not as technical as the other tracks in the season, so he soon began to build on his times and finished a respectable 12th with 1:18.134 for his first lap of the season, with many crashing on the wet greasy track into turn one.
Test Session 2
With the rain easing off, the track began to dry and times improved. A few minor adjustments were made, Adam continued to build and his times improved with him sitting high in the top 10 with good steady consistent laps. With the track drying, and the wet tyres losing grip, a decision was made to try and change to dry tyres. He finished up in 21stposition with a time of 1:12.316. We knew he would have gone faster if he had gone out with a dry rear.
Test Session 3
After some lunch, Adam refuelled with chocolate brownies and he went out and consistently completed fast laps on a now dry track, mixing well in the top 10 gaining further knowledge of the track. He rode a 1:05.879 on lap 20 of 26 to earn an amazing result of 4th fastest in his first ever day of testing at Silverstone – what a fantastic achievement!
Bennetts British Superbike Championship - Round 1
7th-9th April – Silverstone
Free Practice
With plenty of laps now under his belt, he was ready for ‘Free Practice’ on a beautiful sunny afternoon in Silverstone. Now happy on the bike with some minor suspension changes made, Adam’s confidence rose and his times improved with a 1:04.884 time completed on his last lap of 16. Adam and the team were ecstatic as everything was slowly coming together … what happened next was truly remarkable!
Qualifying
Qualifying was the last session of the day and was to start at 1800, the track had lost temperature, but it was still dry. Adam yet again was mixing in with the top 10 with consistent steady laps that any first timer would be delighted with, but not Adam, he continued to push and gave it his all! But like in racing, anything can happen and it usually does.
About to start his last lap, the bike began to cut out and Adam limped into the pitlane from the last corner and up the pit lane to the team (Mum & Dad and mechanic Dave). Unbeknown to Adam, he had come in POLE POSITION on the previous lap with a time of 1:04.213 with the team now ecstatic. Adam is now realising his epic achievement of getting pole on his very first HEL Performance Junior Supersport qualifying.
Race 1
With Adam starting from pole for race 1 of 15 laps, it was a dream start to the first round. Adam was first into the first corner with a great start, it was all change with Adam mixing with 74 Finn SMART-WEEDEN, 3 Lewis JONES and 67 Jacob STEPHENSON swapping positions with Adam leading for a large portion of the race. Adam braked late going into Brooklands, coming together with the rear of 23 Joe ELLIS, both riders slipped back a bit. Adam continued to push to regain positions, but ran himself wide on the last lap finishing in an amazing 9th position in his first ever HEL Performance Junior Supersport race.
Race2
Adam started 7th on the grid with his place generated from the fastest laps in race 1. Adam started well, but immediately fell back from the leading 8 riders and was not able to take advantage of the slip stream and raced alone the majority of the 15 laps behind the leading pack and finished in an uneventful 9th position. Adam was having difficulty turning due to the rear wheel being slightly out of alignment, this scuppered his plans to mix with the leaders again and aim for a podium.
Adam Brown quoted “It was exciting to get pole and 2 top 10 finishes as a newcomer, we can put together what we have learnt at the first round and build on this for the next round at Donington.”
Credit Olithephoto
Our previous British Super Bike reports can be found by following the linked picture.
Thanks to David Harbey and Olithephoto, Darren Oliver-Jones for the images and Kieth Stewart for the media release used in this report
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