Ryan Dixon brings us up to date with his race report from his home round of the season at Brands Hatch just a few weeks ago.

 

A lot of ‘behind the scenes’ work went into preparing for the Brands Hatch meeting. Due to it being our ‘home’ circuit, we usually have quite a few guests, this time was no exception and so we worked hard to make a good impression to all.

Thursday morning we arrived at 8.30, in time to get straight in when the gates opened at 9am and try and get a prime parking spot in the paddock. Once in, we spent most of the day putting the race awning up in the sweltering 30+ degree sunshine.

Once that was done, I had to finish off all the other running about, which included coming back to Folkestone to collect some more bits and pieces that were being finished off etc. Once back at the circuit Thursday evening, we finished off setting everything up for the weekend before getting our heads down ahead of what turned out to be a long and very difficult weekend.

Friday morning came around and with it glorious sunshine and as usual, our free practice session. Out I went to test the bikes set up and try and get everything in order, ready for qualifying later on. I didn’t do anything to crazy, just built up slowly and got into the swing of things. By the end of the session, I’d gone 0.2 seconds quicker than I’d gone in the only dry session I’d done on the GP circuit before, that was in qualifying at the final round of last year which out me 34^th. I ended the free practice session in 31^st out of 50 riders. Not ideal but we were confident we could improve…

Qualifying 1 Friday afternoon again took place in glorious conditions, if anything a little too warm, which reduced grip levels quite a lot. However, the changes we’d made had improved the bike a little and I managed to knock half a second off of my best lap time again. Despite going quicker throughout the session and pushing on, I was really struggling with rear grip and my time was only good enough for 38^th place, just about in the 40 who would progress through qualifying to the race!

Back to the drawing board and we needed to do something to improve the bikes handling otherwise we faced not even qualifying at our ‘home’ round! We made some changes and after discussing a few things with my cousin Jake, who rides in British Supersport, we hoped we were on the right track.

Saturday was again another warm day, not quite as warm as Friday and it seemed grip levels were a little higher on track, I went out for qualifying 2 and just started to get down to similar lap times to what I managed in 1^st qualifying when the bike coughed and spluttered, eventually just dying on me. This forced me to sit out the final 18 minutes or so of qualifying and just hope that I was still in the top 40 by the end of it, otherwise it was weekend over.

The end of the session came and as the commentator read out the names and numbers of the top 40 who had qualified for the race, I began to get very nervous as the list seemed to be going on forever and my number hadn’t been called. I thought momentarily it was game over, but was relieved to hear that luckily I had qualified 40^th and last for the race! Not great but at least I was in it! The problem that almost put us out of the race turned out to be a battery terminal that had worked itself loose which was intermittently cutting the power on the bike.

 

So, after the lucky escape from being a non-qualifier, we made some more changes to the bike as we were still struggling with corner exit. We fitted a harder spring to the rear of the bike and raised it a bit in an attempt to stop it from squatting down at the rear on acceleration and lifting the front of the ground, preventing it from holding a line.

We tried these new settings in warm up and it became immediately clear that we had gone in the right direction, matching my qualifying time in just the five laps of warm up. Then, at the end of warm up as I pulled over to do a practice start, the next disaster of the weekend happened, as I put the bike in neutral it cut out instantly and then wouldn’t start again!

We pushed the bike back to the awning and began looking into what could be the problem. After trying several different things and having the bike stripped into lots of pieces, we managed to get it started, albeit very reluctantly. But, we knew it started so confirmed we would be in the race with race control.

Sunday afternoon, race time came around, I got into my kit and then as we removed the tyre warmers and went to set off for the grid, we couldn’t get the bike to start. I was just starting to take my gloves off when it reluctantly started after a long while of trying. I set off and just kept the bike running while sat on the grid for fear of it not starting if I turned it off.

When the race finally started, I got a good start and made a few places, on the first few laps I made a few places and also lost a few as me and several other riders jockeyed for position. As we settled down a little, I was involved in a 4 rider battle. We were swapping places every lap. That was until I missed my braking marker into one corner, ran wide a lost the tow. One other rider crashed right in front of me and then I set about getting back into a rhythm, which I did.

I was slowly catching back up to the group in front who in turn were also catching the 5 rider group in front of them, however, it was not to be and it was too late in the race. I finished in 32^nd and improved again on my lap time by 1.2 seconds! Again, I was happy to improve on my starting position but overall, it was a very disappointing weekend for me and the team. This meeting was also a reminder of just how competitive the National Superstock 600 class in this year, I qualified 0.7 seconds quicker than the round I did at this circuit last year and ended up 6 positions further back!

I would again like to thank you all for you continued help and support, without it, none of this would be possible. As it stands, we only have the funds to complete the next round this weekend at Thruxton and possibly the following round at Oulton Park the following weekend, so if you know of anyone who may want to help out and be involved with our team as a sponsor, please don’t hesitate to get into contact. There are lots of benefits that can come from this with massive exposure!