DIXON ON MOTO2

“It’s hard to put into words how drastically different the GP scene is from BSB. I knew it would be, but i wasstill shocked when i made my first wild card in the Moto2 class at Silverstone, There was so much to learn, like the way the bike needed to be ridden and just how hard you could push on the Dunlops. I'm used to Pirellis at BSB and I know their limits, but the Dunlops in Moto2 are something else. They offer loads of grips, but they're less forgiving once you start pushing them to the limit. If you lose the front, chnces are you're going down; there's no saving a slide. It helped that there was so much track time at GP, because there are no support classes, I got three 45 minutes practice sessions, a 45 minute qualifying stint and a 20 minute warm-up. That's pretty awesome, but i could have done with the same again because I was playing catch up with the world's best riders who'd been racing the bikes they were on all season; guys that knew the class, the pace and the potential of their bikes' trick chassis. I was guessing my way at every stage and having to take big gambles at every corner. That's why I crashed so much. I could've sat back and cruised around, but that's not me. It was the same case at Valencia when I got my second outing on the Dynavolt intact GP machine. I felt a bit more familiar with the package there, and that showed when I got within 1.8 seconds of the leaders in practice. I did myself in with a crash and that scuppered my chances of going any better, but that's just how it goes. I'd like to think I did okay. After all, if you took a top Moto2 rider and plonked them on a superbike around Cadwell Park they'd have to be going some to get within two seconds of the leaders. It was a steep learning curve, but I'm really grateful I had the chance to give it a go."