RAF Reserves Kawasaki star Jake Dixon took nine points away from the Donington Park Bennetts British Superbike season opener after a crash in third practice caused a domino effect for the rest of the weekend.

The Kent youngster fell at Starkey's on Saturday morning, which meant his team had to rebuild the ZX-10R and he only got three laps in qualifying. The resulting grid slot saw him in traffic and on row four for race two, and so it went on.

“Both of the results stemmed from the tip-off I had at Starkey’s in the third free practice session on Sunday morning and with only three laps in qualifying, I was playing catch-up from that moment on. I had a clutch issue in the first race which left me with no engine braking and back in 12th place whilst Monday was looking a lot better when I’d moved up into sixth place," said Dixon.

"It was difficult overtaking as it meant you had to go off line to do it and I ended up running straight on at the Melbourne Loop whilst chasing Danny Buchan and Shane Byrne. I got back up to 12th so whilst nine points from the two races is far from ideal, I’m in one piece and we can go again at Brands.”