The Honda HRC outfit will have a brand new rider pairing for the 2026 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship as Somkiat Chantra and Kent’s Jake Dixon move over from the MotoGP paddock to compete on the CBR1000RR-R machine next season.

The pair will mark a new start for Honda after the Japanese brand competed with Spanish duo Iker Lecuona and Xavi Vierge for four seasons, with Chantra making a bit of history: he will become the first Thai rider to race full-time in WorldSBK.

Dixon’s path to WorldSBK started with success in British Superbike, first in the Supersport class and then the Superbike category. He finished third in British Supersport in 2015 before moving to the top category in 2016.

His first rostrum came in 2017, when racing on the Kawasaki machine, at Thruxton and he finished that season in sixth place in the standings. He went four places better in 2018 as he finished as runner-up with three victories and 13 podiums as he was defeated by Leon Haslam.

In 2019, he moved to Moto2 and adapted to prototype machinery with the Angel Nieto Team, picking up seven points in his rookie campaign.

A move to Petronas Sprinta Racing followed in 2020 and 2021, while he also got a taste of MotoGP machinery with two races on the Yamaha M1. He was still without podiums in Moto2, however, and moved to the GasGas Aspar Team and the Kalex chassis, with the 29-year-old gelling with the bike and fighting for consistent podiums.

Six rostrums came in 2022 before five more in 2023 and 2024, including two wins in each season.

This season, the Kent rider moved to the Elf Marc VDS Racing Team and their Boscoscuro chassis, with Dixon currently on two wins and five podiums after the Japanese Grand Prix.