A solid start to the opening race saw the 22-year old slot into second place behind Irwin and with Championship rival Leon Haslam down in seventh place, the title remained very much alive. As the race wore on though, Jake slipped back to third as he lost out to the Ducatis along the straight whilst Haslam moved up to sixth.
With four laps to go, Jake moved back ahead of Andrew Irwin to claim second and although he closed the gap to race leader Glenn Irwin, he had to settle for the runners-up spot, his 15th podium of the season. But with Haslam claiming sixth, it meant the JG Speedfit Kawasaki rider took the 2018 BSB title.
Conditions were considerably different on Sunday with the 2.43-mile GP circuit hit by rain and gloomy weather but, lining up in pole position for the first race of the day, Jake ran in the top for the first half of the race before advancing forward. Indeed, lap 13 saw him take over third place and this soon became the lead but as he tipped into Clearways at the end of lap 14, he slid off fortunately without injury.
Starting the 26th and final race of 2018 from fifth on the grid, the weather had worsened again but the Ashby resident slotted into seventh at the end of the first lap and kept himself well in contention with the leading pack in the early laps. Indeed, just after half race distance he took over third place and this was where he ultimately finished to claim his 16th podium from 26 races and end his superb season in second place overall.
Speaking after the weekend, Dixon said: “It was nice to get pole position to make it three in a row and the speed was good all weekend with the bike working fantastically well so it was obviously disappointing for the title to be decided in the opening race. The Ducatis were very strong though and we were lacking a bit of top end speed so when Andrew (Irwin) came by me, it unsettled me a bit. It took me a while to get going again but whilst I tried to close the gap to Glenn, I ran out of time although I gave it everything I had – I left nothing out there, that’s for sure.”
“The conditions on Sunday were far from ideal and the crash in the first race put me on the back foot and I wasn’t prepared to push as much as the others. I did want to get one over Leon though so pushed hard to get him and it’s great to go out with a podium. The team did a great job all weekend as they have done all year and I can’t thank them enough. We’ve had a fantastic two years so to win the team award as well is the icing on the cake.”