JG Speedfit Kawasaki’s Leon Haslam took the opening Bennetts British Superbike Championship win of the day after a race-long battle with Bradley Ray.
The championship leader got the best start and led Buildbase Suzuki’s Ray and RAF Regular & Reserves Kawasaki rider Dixon into the first corner, as Danny Buchan passed Glenn Irwin for fourth moments later.
Ray took the lead with a pass up the inside at Coppice at the start of lap three, just before Dixon was forced wide, leaving Buchan to take over third as Dixon fell victim to Christian Iddon and Tommy Bridewell, who took two in one to go sixth heading into Park.
But Buchan’s race ended moments later as he tucked the front of his FS-3 Racing Kawasaki heading into the bottom of the mountain, crashing out and leaving Be Wiser Ducati rider Glenn Irwin to move to third.
The Safety Car came out on lap five as Movuno.com Halsall Racing’s Chrissy Rouse had a huge off at Hall Bends, and it took three more laps before it went in and the race got back underway.
The order at the front remained unchanged, but Moto Rapido Ducati’s Tommy Bridewell looked to be on a charge as he passed the Tyco BMW of Christian Iddon to move to fifth on lap 10.
On the 12th lap, Iddon’s team-mate Michael Laverty ran wide as he made a mistake braking into Park in an attempt to pass Honda Racing’s Jason O’Halloran for eighth, and ended up dropping back to 16th.
Two laps later, Haslam attempted a similar move on Ray at the same spot and also ran wide, but he was able to quickly regroup and hold onto his second place without losing too much ground.
And on the 16th lap he made the same move and this time made it stick as he took the lead. However, the riders behind were starting to close up and the top five were now in a train.
In the battle for 11th, O'Halloran ran off after reported contact between he and Josh Brookes at Hall Bends, which could bring out fisticuffs after the Aussies had strong words with each other at Thruxton.
Back at the top five scrap, Dixon passed Irwin at the start of the penultimate lap but then had a little moment which was enough to allow Irwin and Bridewell through and up to third and fourth.
However, Dixon was determined not to lose out on valuable podium credits and on the final lap moved back past Bridewell at Park and then Irwin at the Hairpin to grab third, as Haslam crossed the line to bank the win by 0.117secs over Ray.
Irwin was fourth ahead of Bridewell, who celebrated his best result of the season as Iddon took sixth ahead of Peter Hickman’s Smith’s Racing BMW.
Taz Mackenzie was the first McAMS Yamaha home in eighth, as Anvil Hire TAG Yamaha rider Ellison finished ninth ahead of the second McAMS machine of Brookes.
Be Wiser Ducati’s Andrew Irwin’s race was over before it had even started, as the youngster was forced to pull over on his out-lap after a puff of smoke was seen coming out of his machine.
He managed to get back to the garage and the team quickly got to work on the problem but he was unable to make it out in time to start the race.