WIDE OPEN TITLE FIGHT
Dixon becomes the ninth rider to step on the podium in 2018
The 2018 Bennetts British Superbike Championship is closer than ever after the opening three rounds has seen an incredible nine riders stand on the rostrum in the first six races.
While the leading trio of Leon Haslam, Bradley Ray and Shane Byrne are the only riders to have taken victories so far and built themselves a buffer at the top, there are plenty of riders finding form and starting to fight at the front.
RAF Regular and Reserves Kawasaki rider Jake Dixon became the ninth different rider to finish on the podium with his double rostrum at Oulton more than tripling his 2018 points haul. After a tough first two rounds, the 22-year-old led the first seven laps of Monday’s opening race before crossing the line behind winner Haslam and while he didn’t quite have the pace to run at the front in race two, he was able to hold off a late charge from Shane Byrne to secure the final rostrum spot. “It’s been good to get the ball rolling with two podiums this weekend,” Dixon said. “I needed that! We’ve been struggling in the dry so far this year but the team gave me a bike that meant we didn’t struggle quite as much today so we could start to show our potential.
“When you aren’t at the front people start to question why you aren’t there, but there’s always a reason. If you are missing those couple of tenths a lap it just makes everything so much harder because in this championship everything is so close. Now I’m getting the bike where I want it. Things get a bit easier and I’m able to run where I should be running. “We’re still searching for a few things that we can improve on, but overall it’s not a bad place to be considering where we were ahead of the weekend.”
Dixon isn’t the only rider not to have shown his true potential over the first few rounds, and with just 30 points covering fourth to tenth in the series standings things are wide open in the fight for those all-important top six Showdown spots.
Josh Brookes, who now sits seventh in the standings, will no doubt come strong as the season goes on and Snetterton has always been a good track for the Aussie while Tyco BMW’s Christian Iddon wasn’t able to show his potential this weekend at a track he’s gone well at in the past. But he could well come good again soon.
Big names and former winners such as James Ellison, Dan Linfoot, Luke Mossey and Peter Hickman all currently languish outside the top ten but are sure to improve as the year goes on.