Dixon: We’ve done our homework

Full Thruxton BSB qualifying results 

Jake Dixon says he’s confident he can translate his maiden pole position in the MCE British Superbike championship into a similar front-running race pace having felt comfortable using either Pirelli rear tyre compound on the RAF Reserves Kawasaki at Thruxton.

The 21-year-old grabbed Friday’s practice headlines with a timesheet-topping performance and has followed that up with a first pole position in BSB after perfecting his single lap speed in Superpole with a 1m 14.052s despite feeling he’d messed up the middle sector.

Dixon, who admitted he came into the race weekend on the backfoot after a difficult Brands Hatch round and Cadwell Park test, feels he’s been able to carry his pace over the 20-lap race distance in free practice as he aims to add to his dominant double victory at Knockhill in June.

“We tested in the week and to be fair that didn’t go so great and it knocked my confidence a little bit,” Dixon said. “So I was in on the backfoot but we came out in FP1 and we quick straightaway. The bike has been working really well since then.

“After Q2 the grip from the tyre I had in that session didn’t feel as good as the tyre I used in Q1 and I thought if I could have a bit more grip I could to a 1m 13s. On my Superpole lap I went well through sector one but mucked up in sector two so I needed a really good last sector which was enough.

“We’ve been working hard on getting the race pace on the SC1 and SC0 rear Pirelli tyres and when people have used new tyres at the end of the session we’ve been sticking with the same tyre so we have done our homework and hopefully it will pay off tomorrow for two good results.”

Dixon is hunting a Showdown spot and currently sits eighth in the BSB riders’ championship and 19 points off of Peter Hickman who holds the final top six spot.