Ryan Dixon was back on track in a tough weekend at Oulton Park for the latest round of the No Limits Racing season.

In a condensed timetable, and a number of non-championship riders running in the weekend, finishing fifth in race one and third in race two after those who couldn’t score points were removed from the results.

As a result he is second in the championship with just three races of the season left to go. He brings us up-to-date with his weekend here on KSN.

Being a two day meeting instead of the usual three, Friday was practice during the morning and qualifying in the afternoon, ready for a full day of racing Saturday. The test sessions went ok, just the usual, get into the swing of things, get some laps in and check things we’re all good and the bike was feeling as it should.

Having not been to Oulton since 2022 due to injury last year, I felt pretty good straight away and was confident we’d be there or there about when it came to qualifying and racing. Previous to the weekend I did believe it may be a bit more of a struggle here than some other places as the circuit, the weaknesses I feel with my bike against the strengths of the others, particularly the Honda’s and it seemed that I was right. 

Qualifying – I went with old tyres to keep my new ones for the races, so as to optimise performance. Confident I could get on the front two rows and then a good start would see me in the mix, it started off ok. There were a couple of ‘extra’ riders including a couple of BSB lads there who were also in the mix, two of whom would not be scoring points so they could kind of be discounted. I ended up dropping to seventh right at the end of the session but was within a tenth of my best lap there on old tyres and confident with new tyres and couple of small changes to the bike and how I was riding I could find more time. 

Race 1 – an uncharacteristically bad start saw me drop to eighth or ninth but I quickly grabbed a couple of spots back on the first lap and then set about trying to get through the riders I was in and around. I was running sixth and swapping places with Max Lofthouse. Every time he passed I made sure I went straight back through until I couldn’t get the bike to go into fourth gear one lap allowing him past with enough space that I couldn’t come back on the brakes.

I lost a bit of rhythm and dropped back slightly but got my head down and pushed on for the last couple of laps and closed right onto the back wheel of the two in front on the last lap but didn’t have time to try and make a pass. Frustrating because it I’d have risked a bit more a lap or so earlier thinking may have been able to make a pass on them at my strong points on the final lap. Seventh overall but fifth in points once the non-championship riders were discounted. 

Race 2 – a better start but still not great, I held position in seventh, only to drop to eighth initially before getting the position back fairly quickly, but was able to hold onto a group of three in front. Taking a few laps to try and make a plan, I set about executing it. Using the advantage of corner speed on the big Yam I managed to pull off two passes into island bend and two into the Shell Oils hairpin during the race to move up to fourth with around three laps to go.

Then it was a case of keeping concentration, hitting my marks and holding them off. This I managed, despite the three behind setting PB lap times on the final lap, I never had a challenge for position and crossed the line fourth overall but third points scorer.

This leaves me second in the Championship with one round (three races) to go, just two points behind the leader so all to play for at the final round in a few weeks at Donington Park. Mathematically if I score four points or more over the weekend I can’t be caught from behind so it’s almost guaranteed top two but I’ll be doing all I can to try and take the championship.

If it’s meant to be, it will be. Looking forward to the challenge. Sadly, as things stand I don’t have the funds currently to go to Donington with everything required to mount a full on challenge (the ‘budget’ really is that tight) but I will go as best prepared as I can and do whatever possible to challenge.

Some very kind friends/sponsors have already stepped in to help out with a couple of bits and I’ll be putting all I can myself in to make up the difference. I absolutely appreciate how lucky I am to be able to do this at all, I can’t thank my sponsors and supporters enough for what they do for me and hopefully between us we can scrape enough together to take the challenge for the title all the way.