VOL. 54 ISSUE 24 JUNE 20, 2017 P59
DIXON DOES THE DOUBLE
J
ake Dixon (RAF Kawasaki)
took his first win in the Brit-
ish Superbike Championship
at Knockhill's race one Sunday,
June 18, then promptly followed
that up with a second victory
in race two after an epic battle
with James Ellison (McAMS
Yamaha).
Dixon has shown promise on
the Kawasaki in recent times
but until now has been unable
to capitalize on his form. He put
that right in race one, taking a
comfortable 3.7-second victory
from Luke Mossey (JG Speedfit
Kawasaki) and four-time cham-
pion Shane Byrne (Be Wiser
Ducati).
It was a much tighter battle
in race two, with Ellison push-
ing the youngster all the way
and eventually coming up 0.437
seconds short with Byrne once
again completing the podium.
"I've never had a
podium in the Superbike
class before this week-
end so to leave with two
race wins has left me a bit
speechless to be honest,
I can't believe it!" said and
ecstatic Dixon.
"It was hard leading from the
front in the first race but the gap
kept going up and it was almost
like I was floating out there so
I just tried to keep as focused
and as calm as possible.
"We didn't change a single
thing on the bike for race two
and I knew what pace I had so
when I could see some of the
riders sliding around, I knew I
was in a good position as my
bike was on rails and not using
nowhere near the same amount
of rubber. I let the race come to
me and made my moves in the
last third of the race but having
taken the double, it's hard to de-
scribe how I'm feeling right now.
It'll take a while to sink in but a
massive thank you to the whole
team and the sponsors and to all
my family."
American John Hopkins (Moto
Rapido Ducati) finished the
weekend with seventh in race
one but dropped to 17th in race
two. CN
An emotional Dixon hugs his
crew following his historic
double at Knockhill.
2018 MONSTER
ENERGY SUPERCROSS
SCHEDULE
T
he 2018 Monster Energy AMA
Supercross Schedule again
features 17 rounds but with three
new venues. Foxborough, Houston
and Tampa all return to the schedule
in 2018. These events are replacing
the Detroit, Toronto and E. Ruth-
erford (New Jersey) rounds. Once
again, Anaheim, California will host
the opener, January 6. CN
Supercross will return to three locations in 2018:
Foxborough, Houston and Tampa.
