Cadwell Park had been no party and Hicky and the FHO Racing Team headed to round nine at Oulton Park, after a positive test there early in the season, Hicky felt good with what they had changed on the BMW M 1000 RR and was ready for the weekend ahead.
Over FP1 and FP2 Hicky managed a 1:35.412 lap time to put him 8th overall and subsequently a place in qualifying (top 12) for Saturday.
Hicky felt good as the qualifying session got underway. The bike had other ideas however and Hickman was unable to set a lap time due to a mechanical issue forcing retirement from the session on the first lap. This placed him back in P18 for Race One later that day.
Race One 12 laps
A row 6 start was always going to be a hard race. Starting alongside Bourne and behind Stapleford, he needed a good start to enable him to progress up the field.
Hicky made that good start and was up to P15 by the end of lap 1 chasing Todd and Cook. By lap 4 he had moved up to P11 passing Cook and then Nesbitt and Todd but was unable to catch O’Halloran and the group ahead, he crossed the line in P9.
Hickman’s fastest lap of the race was 1:35.272 on lap 7
Race Two 18 laps
Starting a little further up alongside Vickers and Stacey on row 4 Hicky was looking forward to making more progress around the Cheshire circuit.
Hicky got an average start and was dicing with Iddon, Stacey and Nesbitt. On lap 5 he got past Storm and tried to bridge the gap to O’Halloran ahead.
The safety car came out on lap 14 when Storm Stacey crashed out and bunched the pack up, however, Hickman was unable to maximise the chance when the car came back in on lap 16, leaving him to cross the line in P10.
Hickman’s fastest lap of the race was 1:34.892 on lap 2 and his fastest lap of the weekend.
Race Three 18 laps
The final race of the day and the FHO team had made a massive change to the bike as Hickman had nothing to lose, alongside Vickers and Stacey once again on row 4.
Things did not go to plan and Hicky dropped a few places in the early part of the race, leaving him battling with Nesbitt and Stacey once more. On lap 10, he got past Charlie but was unable to take P10 from Storm and crossed the line in P11.
Hickman’s fastest lap of the race was 1:34.950 on lap 7.
Peter Hickman:
Race 1: 9th / Race 2: 10th / Race 3: 11th
“The weekend started off positive, we were fifth in FP1 and eighth fastest overall, we’ve come off the back of some tough rounds and we were looking to be somewhere in the mix at the start. Qualifying it all went a bit wrong, we had a mechanical on the first flying lap and ended up 18th on the grid yesterday for Race 1 as we didn’t secure a lap time, which wasn’t an ideal situation.
However, I managed to get a good start and ended up ninth, so I was quite happy about that. We made a little change for today’s first race, but I think we went the wrong way as it made the bike hard to ride and I struggled to be honest, and it meant I finished 10th, so went backwards from my grid position.
The last race wasn’t the result we wanted but we’d made quite a radical change, because we have nothing to lose so let’s try something and see if we can improve.
All we need to do is improve where we’ve been struggling and we’re not a million miles away, we’ve made a step forward this weekend, but we just need another step. Josh is nearly there he’s made good progress, I’m nearly there, just a couple of tenths a lap off, which is next to nothing.
The last race was the worst result of the weekend, however, I was much more consistent; the BMW felt much better, and I think with a better starting position we could have actually been much more in the mix.”
ANOTHER TOUGH WEEKEND FOR HICKY