Jake Dixon explains bizarre WorldSBK crash: “This thing wanted to obliterate itself”

Jake Dixon suffered what seemed initially to be a colossal crash at the Aragon WorldSBK, but as it turned out the damage to the bike belied the severity of the fall itself.

The bike tore itself to pieces as it tumbled, the front wheel being almost completely ripped off. It was the sign of a high-side, but the reality was that Dixon had simply lost the front in the middle of turn 12 and the bike was pushed into its destructive spiral by the kerb on the outside of the corner.

Dixon explained afterwards that the crash happened in part because of his lack of base setup, a consequence of missing so much time, as well as a lack of experience with the front tyre compound he was running at the time of the crash.

“It was just a bit of a ‘nothing crash’, really,” said Jake Dixon, speaking after FP2 to WorldSBK.com.

“The problem is I haven’t had enough time on the bike to have a really good, solid base that we come to a track and everything [is] relatively okay. 

“It just happened to be that we had to go with the harder-compound front tyre – I’ve not ran it, and the setting wasn’t perfect for me, and I was slightly deep, and it was just a recipe for disaster. 

“But the thing is I could do that crash 10 times over and every time get up, get on the bike and ride it back. 

“For some reason, this thing wanted to absolutely obliterate itself and snap itself in half. The boys done a really good job to rebuild it and they literally just finished it before the session, so it was a big job on.”

Dixon added that the crash resulted in a new physical issue with his shoulder, although he was still able to complete his longest stints on the bike since returning to the WorldSBK-spec Fireblade in a test at Misano on 20–21 May.

“In that crash I jarred my shoulder a little bit,” he said.

“Unfortunately, that’s the biggest thing that I would say was hindering me [in FP2]. 

“My wrist is obviously what it is, strength is the limiting factor for me right now. 

“I’ve done the most laps that I’ve done so far being back on the bike, I think I did 12 laps, but I did a few laps on, one lap off, so my bike fitness needs to improve. 

“My wrist is sore now, I need to recover tonight and see how I feel tomorrow morning.”