MarTrain Yamaha’s Alastair Seeley dominated the Motorpoint British Supersport sprint race in wet conditions at Assen, and in the end had a nine second advantage over the eventual second place finisher Team Traction Control’s James Rispoli.

But it was not a good opening race for the Smiths Triumph garage, as the pole-setter Graeme Gowland crashed on the very first lap. His team-mate Billy McConnell could only manage an eleventh place finish, but extends his lead in the champions to six points - from his garage buddy, with Seeley closing the gap in third in the overall championship standings.

Rispoli bagged his maiden podium in the class, with Acumen’s Luke Jones completing the rostrum, after a steady race and he slowly made his way up the field, to snatch third from Gearlink Kawsaki’s Glenn Irwin.

At first it was Gowland who got the hole-shot and was pushing ahead of Irwin and Mossey, but the title contender ended up in the gravel at Meeuwenmeer. The Carrickfergus native ended up getting a bit caught up in the Smith Triumph rider’s crash, leaving Dixon, Seeley and Rispoli to lead the way – on only the  very first lap.

Seeley ended up getting the better of Dixon at Haarbocht and led the race from the fourth lap, with Pirelli National Superstock 600 contender Kyle Ryde trying to close the gap on the American, Rispoli. By lap six Seeley appeared to have found a good rhythm and stormed on ahead – with a ten second advantage over Dixon. But the Essex rider was close to being attacked by Irwin, who was closing the gap on the Appleyard bike.

But going into the Geert Timmer chicane Irwin got the better of Dixon, and had Rispoli close on his tail coming out of the first corner. The Team Traction Control rider soon passed Dixon and a battle emerged on a drying track between Irwin and Rispoli.

The Gearlink Kawasaki bike had full wets on the front and the back, whereas Rispoli had a wet tyre at the front, and an intermediate tyre at the rear of his machine, and that appeared to help him with some added pace, to make a move that stuck at the chicane to go into second.

Meanwhile Jones was setting consistently fast lap times and crept up on the leading trio, and coming into Geert Timmer on the penultimate lap overtook Irwin to take third. But at the flag Seeley cemented a dominant win with a nine second advantage, from Rispoli, Jones and Irwin.

Dixon crossed the finishing line in sixth, behind Bos, but in front of debutant Ryde, Hipwell and Mossey. Wildcard rider Chris Noble took the Evo class victory, and rounded up the top ten – finishing ahead of championship leader McConnell.

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