THE FINAL round of the 2019 British Superbike Championship was completed with Evesham team Jones Dorling Racing able to enjoy their best ever rankings.
Jones Dorling Racing’s season was by far their best ever, with two podiums over the 12 rounds, finishing tenth in the 600 championship and 16th in the Superstock 1,000.
In the finale, the team travelled to Kent’s Brands Hatch circuit to once again compete in the Superstock support series but, with Ben Godfrey still recovering from the incident at Donington Park which left him with a broken leg amongst other injuries, it was up to Jordan Weaving on the other Suzuki 1,000 and Worcester’s Ewan Potter on the Yamaha 600 to finish the season with some points.
Friday’s changeable weather made the free practice sessions difficult. Both of the 600 sessions were wet and Potter moved from P23 to P21. Weaving improved from P16 to P12 in his dry session.
Potter struggled in Saturday’s qualifying with the bike set-up on the drier track. He made a couple of pit stops for adjustments but, just as he became more comfortable and ready to put in a fast lap, there was an incident and the session was red-flagged with four minutes to go, leaving Potter in P26.
Weaving was hoping to repeat his third-placed grid position from the last round, but he could not get in any fast laps. He was eight seconds slower than the previous day due to technical issues and finished in P24, which was definitely not where he wanted to be.
Potter’s 12-lap race started well with him moving up seven places by lap six from his starting position of 26th. He continued to push hard and knocked a second off his previous lap time to cross the line in P18.
Weaving lined up for his race 24th on the grid and knowing he had a challenge ahead to finish in the points. He had a great start in making up nine places in the first half a lap, however the race was then red-flagged at end of the first lap.
The restart rules meant that when the race got under way again the riders had to go to original grid positions. He battled his way through the competitive field and moved up ten places by lap two, then picked off riders one by one in the nail-biting race to take the chequered flag in eighth.
