By Sandy Burr

Jake Dixon clinched two fourth-placed finishes during round six of the British Superbike Championship at Brands Hatch.

Kent hopes focused on Dover's Dixon, riding for RAF Regular & Reserves Kawasaki and Suzuki Buildbase’s Bradley Ray from Lydd.

Dixon was was hoping to build on his first and second place success at Knockhill, in the previous round, and qualified second on the Grid. Ray only managing a 14th place start.

It was Ray who got the better start, however, gaining six places to eighth position, leading to a head to head battle with Dixon, who couldn’t gain advantage of his start, dropping down to seventh. The battle didn’t last with Ray again losing form and places.

Dixon had a good ride, getting the better of Christian Iddon after a close fought fight up to fifth place.

Josh Brookes, having led the race from the start, never succumbed to the pressure from Glen Irwin and took the race one victory. Irwin finished second, Leon Haslam third and Dixon finished in a respectable fourth place after Tarran Mackenzie, who was having the most successful Superbike race of his early career crashed out on the last lap.

Ray unable to recover his earlier lap streaks and crossed the line in 13th place.

It was deja vu in race two. Dixon had edged up fourth place by lap seven and with clear track ahead, set his sights on catching Haslam at the back of the leading three. Mackenzie pushed Dixon hard hoping to make up for his race one DNF.

It was Brookes who again took the chequered flag with Irwin second, Haslam third and Jake Dixon fourth. Ray never got going and lost places steadily throughout the race, finishing in 16th position.

Dixon sits second in the championship with 162 points, behind leader Haslam (242) while Ray sits fifth.

Sixteen-year-old Luke Hopkins from Sittingbourne, was competing in the Superstock 600.

He was hoping to shake off his recent run of bad luck after a huge crash at Snetterton, which almost completely destroyed his Yamaha R6, and failing to finish due to a technical fault in his last outing at Knockhill. He started in row four on the grid,12th position.

With a steady opening few laps, Hopkins only dropped down one place where he enjoyed an incident free race to secure a 13th position finish and three points.