It was another good weekend for Ryan Dixon at the latest round of the No Limits Racing season from Croft.
Race one saw a seventh place finish, race two a fourth place finish and race three a second place and leaving the North East with the championship lead. He brings us up-to-date with his weekend.
A little late to the party but last round saw round round of the championship at a new circuit to me, up in the North East at Croft. Having never been before I went with the intention of learning as best as I could on the test day then damage limitation points wise before going to two of my stronger tracks, Brands Hatch and Anglesey Circuit / Trac Môn next.
We had a glorious weather all weekend so it was just a case of concentrate and work out the best way around the circuit on Friday. All felt pretty good by the end of the day so was happy enough. Saturday morning saw qualifying and to begin with I was floating in and around the top four and was thinking I may be on for a better start than expected but as everyone got going towards the end of the session, I dropped to eight, although half a second faster would have moved me up to third so I was happy enough I’d be in the mix come race time.
Race 1 – a good start saw me fourth into turn one, then two of the riders in front, both championship rivals, ended up running off into the gravel promoting me to second and I thought Christmas had come early.
Heading into turn two I planned to try and go away with the leader and get away while the other sorted themselves out but my plans were scuppered when I received a hefty shiny from the inside running me right to the outside of the track and dropping me to around 17th by the time I got back up to speed!
From then on it was a case of doing what I could, catching and passing people throughout the race, I worked my way back through to seventh at the line.
Race 2 – my lap time put me third on the grid for this one, a reasonable start saw me hold position, then the championship leader went down early on so it was a case of making sure I got to the finish but obviously as high as possible. Just as things were looking pretty good, I hit neutral at the tight final hairpin and almost fell off the inside of the bike as I opened the throttle and nothing happened.
This lost me three positions back to fifth. I managed to make one back but we were all in very similar pace so it was looking like fourth until the rider in third had a massive high side with three corners to go, promoting me to third, however as he slid down the track in front of me, the time I lost waiting to make my way through safely allowed the rider behind to attack at the final corner and despite my best efforts at defending he made it stick meaning I did end up crossing the line fourth.
Race 3 – a good start saw me second into turn one, a race long battle ensued with riders close behind but I made sure any time someone got past or close to getting in front I went straight back past, managing to hold second for the whole race to end the weekend on a bit of a high.
Considering the plan going into the weekend, a third overall, three finishes, one being a podium and inheriting the championship lead was a bit of a result really.
Now to try and keep the momentum going at the next round at my favourite circuit, Brands GP! Thank you to all who have made it possible to get this far in 2024 and hopefully I can scrape the rest of the funds together to finish off the season and challenger for the championship until the end!
Images courtesy of Campix Photography