Ryan Dixon finally had a weekend that almost went perfectly to plan in the latest round of the No Limits Racing season at Donington Park last weekend.

With three podiums, one win and two second places it was a decent haul of points as well. Plus he was racing current British Superbike Champion Kyle Ryde as well.

Here he brings us up-to-date with his race weekend: “Finally, a weekend that kind of went to plan! Other than still not having found the issue with the fault I have which is cutting all electronic aids, the bike actually kept going for all three races this weekend without issue, the first time this year!

Qualifying – struggled a bit in qualifying, bike just didn’t feel like mine and every time I tried to push at all, I was having more issues. I did my best to improve my lap time but just seem able to, eventually ending eighth on the grid (seventh in the points scorers when you take a certain Kyle Ryde out of the equation). After a couple of small adjustments to front suspension and a bit of advice from Kyle (he was in the same garage as me) I was ready to have a go in race one.

Race One – my usual strong starts are non existent since the anti wheelie hasn’t been working, it’s taking some getting used to and clearly in this race I hadn’t got used to it. We got going for a couple of laps but a red flag saw a restart and a five lap dash. An equally terrible start and I thought the race was over before it had begun going into turn one in 14th. However, I passed five people on the first lap and set about hunting down the others at the front.

One rider went down on lap two but I caught and then proceeded to pass riders for the remainder of the race and made it through to third at the flag but actually classified second as Kyle wasn’t scoring points etc. also a much better lap time than qualifying with a bike that felt more like mine and also me deciding it was partly me too and riding a bit more assertively.

Race Two – up to fourth on the grid and a more reasonable start saw me in the top five on lap one. A couple of early passes put me into third and then I followed championship leader, Max Lofthouse through to leave us as first and second. I passed him as soon as I had a chance and then tried to make a break for it. It seemed to work as I slowly opened up a 1.1 second lead at its peak and then brought it home steadily to take the win.

Race Three – third on the grid for this one and a reasonable start again saw me second at the end of lap one. I then passed for the lead and attempted to break away but Max had wised to my attempts and came straight back at me.

I was holding station trying to work out where I may be able to make a pass when the rider following passed me three times in half a lap or so and in the battle, we lost touch with max.

I put the hammer down to try and break away and set about trying to catch Max which I did a small amount only then for world Supersport rider Jeremy Alcoba to come past (he was there learning the circuit for the world championship round in two weeks) and mess up my rhythm again.

This allowed Max some breathing room and I knew I didn’t have time to make up the gap as we were so similarly matched pace wise so took a solid third place finish (second in points) which also gave me the overall win for the weekend. In the end, once I sorted myself out, it was a solid weekend, my first overall of the year, three finishes, three podiums and 20 points clawed back in the championship chase. Now 38 behind and going to Anglesey Circuit / Trac Môn next which is usually quite a strong circuit for me. Thank you as always to all who help, support and make this possible. We’re still in the hunt.”

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