After a frustrating NW 200, Hicky and the FHO BMW team headed over to Donington Park for Round Three of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship.
Consistent pace during Friday’s FP1 and FP2 times saw Hicky head straight into Q2 Qualifying for Saturday with a 1:06.259 and seventh over the two sessions.
Saturday’s Qualifying session was fast and furious with the top 12 riders in Q2 running under the existing lap record. Peter waited until his last lap to set his fastest time 1:05.719, starting 6th for Race One.
Race One 20 Laps
Hicky didn’t get a great start dropping down to 9th in the first lap. Sitting with Buchan and Mackenzie for a lap he passes Buchan and started to make up some ground.
Tom Sykes ahead and Iddon behind him, he moves to 7th on lap 3. Keeping Glenn and Skinner in sight. Lap 15, whilst catching up, Hicky lost ground on a move on Skinner and got caught by the pursuing Iddon and Bridewell. He crosses the line in 9th.
Hicky’s fastest lap of the race was 1:06.030 on lap 4.
Race Two 26 Laps
Hicky started from 5th on the grid again tangling with Skinner and Bridewell.
Nothing going to plan. Hicky finds himself back in 9th when Bridewell loses the front crashing out, avoiding action, and goes through the gravel trap at the end of the lap. Finds himself back in 13th.
Sykes and Brookes ahead and then Vickers. But consistent lap times and Hicky goes up behind teammate Vickers passing into Redgate. Just over 3 seconds to the pack ahead, but by lap 20 Hicky was with them. Haslam, Iddon, Mackenzie and Skinner in their own battle.
On lap 22 he passes Iddon and on lap 23 he takes Mackenzie and then Skinner into Starkys. On lap 24, Hicky had closed the gap to Haslam to 0.33 and takes him at the Old Hairpin and breaks away.
With 8 seconds to Jackson in 3rd, Peter had to settle for 4th. But a great comeback!
Hicky’s fastest lap of the race was 1:05.825 on lap 4.
Race Three 26 Laps
After a great race two, Hicky starts the race on the front row P3 and stays with the front riders as they started. Hicky battling with Haslam and then met by the chasing Iddon and O’Halloran.
Leon Haslam crashed heavily at Schwantz, also Glenn Irwin. The incident meant the Safety Car was deployed whilst the accident was cleared. Hicky dropped back through the field with a technical issue as the race restarted.
Lap 8 Peter retires.
Hicky’s fastest lap of the race was 1:06.572 on lap 4.
Peter Hickman
The weekend was very frustrating for us, lots of pace again with possibilities of even being on the podium, which is of course what we need. However, I nearly ran into the back of Haslam in race two, which then sent me through the gravel at the last corner. Rejoining 13th wasn’t great, but to claw my way back up to fourth and bridge the gap that was the whole start and finish straight, as a good achievement and showed our pace.
We were looking forward to the last race and getting the first podium of the year and unfortunately, a small electrical problem forced us out. Just before Haslam crashed I had a slight issue, the safety car came out and I waited to see if they were going to red flag it because if they did red flag it, the team could have fixed what the issue was. After a few laps, they didn’t red flag it, so there was no point staying out.
Unfortunate and disappointing, however, we proved again we have the pace, we just need a little bit of luck.
So now we are moving on to the Isle of Man TT for two weeks, lots to look forward to.
It’s been three years since we last raced at the Isle of Man TT, so I’m looking forward to riding the Gas Monkey Garage by FHO Racing BMW in the Superbike and Superstock, as well as the K2 Trooper Triumph in the Supersport, which is the 765, the new evolution rules. I am also going to be riding a Paton in the Lightweight class, so really looking forward to that as I have never ridden one before, so we shall see how it goes!
Hicky
British Superbike Round Three, Donington Park