RAF Regular and Reverse Kawasaki rider Jake Dixon had a race to remember at Knockhill today in the opening MCE British Superbike Championship race. The 21 year old, returning to the track where he made his Superbike debut just 12 months ago led the field from start to finish in what was an imperious display.
Dixon, starting P2 on the grid for the first race got a great start heading into turn one and led Luke Mossey by the time the bikes had reached Leslie’s corner. From there, the young rider stretched his legs over the field to come home a convincing 3.7 seconds ahead of Mossey, who in truth, would have been the popular favourite for the win given his form this weekend
The early stages of the race were frantic with Byrne and Mossey having moments at the Duffus Dip and Clark’s Corners, causing both riders to lose ground to the front-runners. However, both made their way back through after falls for Linfoot, Elllison and then Brookes at the Hairpin; but by the time Mossey got back into a rhythm Dixon was gone. Mossey, try as he may couldn’t quiet bridge the gap to Dixon, despite recording the fastest lap of the race with a 48.573 second effort.
In behind with Byrne in third, O’Halloran was chasing hard and Taylor Mackenize and Brad Ray were having storming rides in P5 and P6 respectively; before Ray unfortunately came off his bike at Clark’s Corner. Mackenize held on well, and despite some pressure in the closing stages, Shane Byrne held off O’Halloran’s charge to seal that all-important podium credit.
Mackenzie quickly followed for his best result of the season aboard his Bennetts Suzuki – probably buoyed by the race-winning antics of Dad Niall in the Scotland Vs England Pro-Am Challenge.
A delighted and emotional Dixon entered the pit-lane to rapturous applause from his team and fellow riders. He had this to say afterwards: “I can’t thank everyone enough; my family, my sponsors and especially my Dad on Father’s Day for helping and pushing me to this stage.
“To string 30 laps together around Knockhill is tough, and I honestly couldn’t believe it when I saw +3 on my pit board. I’m sky high right now; I genuinely can’t believe it… I’ll need to get back down to earth for race two later today.”
Luke Mossey, with that second place finish retakes the lead of the BSB standings heading into race two, and had this to say: “I had a moment on the first lap; I managed to get close but the tyre choice we made at the start of the race made things difficult for me. All credit to Jake though, we’ll look forward to race 2 and see what we can do there.”
A somewhat subdued Byrne added: “It’s not to bad to be on the podium when you are having a difficult weekend. The bike just isn’t there yet, however, we need podium credits, so we’ll take that and keep chipping away.
The next MCE British Superbike Championship race takes place at 16.30pm today.
