Unwell Dixon continues flawless BSB Showdown start

Jake Dixon has been battling his Bennetts British Superbike title rivals and illness at Assen but maintained his perfect start to the Showdown with a lap record pole position at the Dutch circuit.

Moto2-bound Dixon’s final flying lap in Q3 secured him back-to-back poles for the first time in his BSB career, producing a new outright lap record of 1m 35.716s, to edge out Tarran Mackenzie on the McAMS Yamaha by just 0.004s.

Having taken a double victory plus his pole position in the opening BSB Showdown round at Oulton Park two weeks ago, Dixon is eager to keep the pressure on championship leader Leon Haslam having cut the JG Speedfit Kawasaki rider’s lead to 31 points coming into the Assen round.

“I haven’t been feeling the best so far this weekend, I started to feel a bit ill midweek and the team said it would pass, but hopefully tomorrow is a step towards feeling better again,” Dixon said.

“We have worked hard on race distance during free practice and it was really great to do the fast laps in qualifying on the softer option tyre as it is nice to try and find the limit of what you have to offer.

“Overall I am happy with qualifying and the feeling we have for tomorrow. I have done my homework and so hopefully that will pay off in the races so we can try to close down Leon again.”

Since the last BSB round Dixon confirmed his future switch to Moto2 with the Aspar-run Angel Nieto team on a two-year deal.