The penultimate round of the British Superbike Championships took place at Assen in Holland last weekend and the RAF Regular and Reserves Kawasaki team were hoping their rider Jake Dixon would move within reach of winning the title after a very strong season.

Unfortunately the weather put paid to the chance of that with only championship leader Leon Haslam on the JG Speedfit Kawasaki qualifying well out of the six showdown riders.

Dixon was twelfth on the grid, one behind former champion Josh Brookes while Jason O'Halloran, Shane Bryne and Peter Hickman languished even further back.

In race one the team opted for the harder tyre anticipating that those on the softer tyre would drop the pace as the race progressed.

Unfortunately that took longer to happen than hoped and while Byrne and Brookes charged through the field after Haslam it wasn't until lap 13 of the 18 that Dixon was able to take advantage of his tyre and move up the field to finish in eighth place.

With a better grid position for race two Dixon was away with the leaders and when Hickman and Christian Iddon had a bit of a moment he didn't need a second invitation to go through to sixth place.

This soon became a four-way battle when Linfoot caught the trio and at the flag it was Hickman who grabbed sixth from Dixon followed by Iddon and Linfoot in what was a very fast race, the race win went to Frenchman Sylvain Guintoli on a Suzuki.

The RAF team principle said that while not at the front Dixon was matching Haslam's pace throughout the race.

With a points gap of 54 between the title leader Haslam and Dixon it is still possible but highly unlikely that he can catch Haslam in the final round at Brands Hatch.

After the exclusion of Thetford's Ryan Vickers in the Oulton Park Superstock 600 race regulations controlling this class have be changed to include the mod to the clutch although those excluded will not be reinstated.