RAF Reserves Kawasaki’s Jake Dixon bagged ninth place in yesterday’s second WorldSBK race at Donington Park on a BSB-spec bike using very little in the way of electronics.

His team were using the weekend as added test time before the MCE—backed series’ next round at Knockhill and Dixon had absolutely no designs on a top-ten finish, given the difference in bike specification and money, plus a new crew chief in the shape of Glen Richards and stand-in data engineer Steve Moore.

“If you told me this at the beginning of the weekend I would not have believed it. I got a really good start and I made up six positions, and I came around and saw myself in 13th, and I thought, ‘Really?’”, Dixon told bikesportnews.com at the track.

“Then I did another lap and I was up to 12th and then a couple of riders started falling off, and by the end of the race I was in ninth and I thought, ‘I will take this any day’. I would just like to thank Lee Hardy and the team – to do this on a BSB bike over the World Superbikes is something special and I would like to say thanks to them. They have put a lot of money into doing this and it is hard work with no traction control.”