Ryan Dixon started his Thundersport GB 1000 series season off in style with pole position, three wins and a fastest lap at Brands Hatch.

It continued Dixon’s fine form after he took the Thundersport GB 600 series title last season, one of the best moments of his career to date.

Speaking to Kent Sports News, Dixon said: “For sure winning the championship is one of the highlights of my racing career so far. I’ve had other successes such as winning British Supermoto Championship races and winning one off races here and there such as Aberdare Park etc.

“I’m quite proud of some of my achievements in British Supersport over the years with several top 10 finishes in a field stacked full of class riders, all on machinery prepared and maintained at home but to put together a complete season and be consistently fast enough to eventually take the title at the end of the year does take top spot in my achievements. I finished all of the 20 races bar one and was on the podium in 17 of them.”

That title win showed Dixon that he can compete for race wins and titles on a regular basis and he is hoping to push on from here.

He added: “I’ve always known that on my day when everything fell into place and things felt good I could run good lap times and compete at a high level.

“A lot of the time my bike hasn’t been the fastest and funding has always been a major issue which meant no test days, not always having new tyres etc. but last year I just tried to stay consistent and make sure I finished as high up as possible, if I couldn’t win, a podium was good points.

“As others crashed or lost points around me, I managed to build up a slight lead in the championship as we got into the year. It got close towards the end but I held my nerve in some very tricky conditions at the final round at Cadwell Park to take the championship.”

This season Dixon has made the step up to the 1000 series and he has already shown that he is competitive at the top end of that grid as well.

“I’ve wanted to move to a 1000 for a few years now but lack of funding and to be honest time to get things organised, has always made it easier to stick with the 600. After winning the championship I sort of bit the bullet and decided one way or the other I’d get a 1000 and see how things went.

“Thanks to some great generosity from sponsors, particularly Stroud Wealth Management with the bike, I managed to get a decent spec, fairly new bike that was good to go and here we are, leading the championship after Round one with a pole position, three race wins and fastest lap of the weekend so far, a pretty good start to 2022.

“I’ve always thought a 1000 would suit my riding style better, I’m not sure it’s completely down to that but it certainly has started off well and I hope to continue with similar success for the remainder of 2022.”

Given that it was a new bike and a new specification, Ryan didn’t really expect to hit the ground running in such an impressive way.

He said: “To be honest, no. I’d only ever ridden a 1000 on one track day previously, about four or five years ago on a sponsors bike and I only collected the bike two weeks before the first meeting.

“I had no practice on it and turned up to Brands Hatch on the Thursday evening with no spares, not having ridden a bike since Cadwell in October 2021 and only having the Friday test day to get some sort of set up and feeling for the new bike. It was hard to gauge how I was going on the test day with the mix of bikes on track so went into qualifying not knowing what to expect.

“I’d been talking to people and saying that really, if I could get on the fronts two rows in qualifying to get away with the front group and have three top five finishes, that would do me to start the year. Any podiums would be a bonus. So to grab pole first time out on the bike was a pleasant surprise!

“I won all three races, two by over five seconds after having more than seven seconds lead before taking it slightly easier on the last few laps once I encountered back markers etc. to make sure I got to the finish.

“It couldn’t have gone much better, I also posted the fastest lap time of the weekend, so considering it was the first time I’d ever ridden the bike and really ever ridden a 1000, I was pretty pleased to start the year in that form! I do know Brands Hatch pretty well but it was the first time I’ve ridden there since 2019 and first time on the Indy Circuit since BSB stopped using it, in 2018 I think.”

There is certainly more to come from Dixon and his new bike this season and who would bet against him taking the 1000 series title at the end of the season.

“As I said previously, I only collected the bike less than two weeks before going to Round 1, I went there with it as I picked it up, didn’t change the settings at all and even did the first two practice sessions on the tyres that came on the bike which weren’t in the greatest condition ever!

“I certainly think there is more to come with more time on the bike and playing around with some settings and just getting used to it and how to ride it. Its early days and I am fully aware anything can happen but it’s a great start and it would be cool to win 600 and 1000 championships back to back.

“I’d love to get back into the BSB paddock in the stock 1000 class but need to find some serious funding to make that a possibility so will wait and see how this year pans out.”