It was another tricky weekend for Ryan Dixon at the latest round of the No Limits season at Croft.

As Ryan brings us up-to-date with his weekend it is fair to say that it is not coming easy for him at the moment.

“I was on my own for the weekend so set up my bedroom in the back of the van and got to work, after the 440 mile trip to collect the bike from raceways in Blackpool ‘on the way’ to Croft.

“Test day went reasonably enough. Getting back into the swing of it and acclimatising the body again after a 5 week lay off. Got pretty much back up to speed and then set about preparing the bike for qualifying.

Qualifying – the session started earlier than planned and so I missed the first minute and a half or so. Got out, found a space and set about getting a lap in. Two laps later and after no clear laps, a red flag came out and cut the session short. I managed fourth which I was happy enough all things considered.

Race 1 – the bike had developed an electrical sensor issue meaning I didn’t appear to have any traction, side or wheelie control which is fine, it just needed some getting used to.

I got one of my worst starts ever due to being too cautious not to wheelie too much off the line, dropping back to around 10th or 11th. I fought back through to fifth and managed to bridge the gap to the group of three in front but frustratingly another red flag came out cutting the race short and leaving me no chance to attempt any overtakes to move further up the field.

Fifth it was, not an entirely happy end to Saturday. I then set about preparing for Sunday and tried a couple of different sensors but to no avail so thought I’d stick with it for the weekend and then try and sort it after the weekend.

Sunday mornings weather was very mixed and tyre choice was looking like a bit of a gamble until about 10 mins before the race when a downpour confirmed it was definitely wet.

Race 2 – VERY wet and very cautious started to the lack of electronics, I dropped to sixth but one championship rival went down in front at which point I thought to myself, just get to the finish.

As the race went on, I was feeling better and better and getting faster each lap. I caught and passed two riders who had got away a bit during the race, one on the final corner of the race and came across the line third. Not too bad in terms of damage limitation.

Race 3 – was another case of watching conditions, rain had stopped and it was drying fairly quickly. Slicks were the only option and a fairly last minute fitting of the wheels, I was good to go.

However when I got to the holding area, the bike was very soft, I’d forgotten to change the suspension settings back to dry and so rushed back to change them but missed the pack being sent to the grid and had to join at the back of the warm up lap and start back of the grid.

A reasonable start and super aggressive first couple of laps, I was soon through to third which I thought was about all I could manage as the leaders were away and gone.

Then just to compound the misery and struggles the clutch started slipping very badly and although I probably should have pulled in, I nursed it home, half throttle down the straights and trying to keep my speed up through the corners so as not to loose too much time. Somehow I managed to keep third for some more damage limitation.

A bit disappointed overall with how the weekend went but it was a lot of work alone and more troubles certainly didn’t help.

However, to try and put a positive spin on it, I did manage to move up to second in the championship but I’m now 58 points behind the leader. A big ask but I’ll not give in until the season is over! Thank you also to Raceways Motorcycles for getting the bike back up and running and working a bit of magic on it.

Images courtesy of https://www.facebook.com/CamipixPhotography