Hicky headed to the Czech Republic with FHO Racing Team Owner Faye Ho, to race at WorldSBK at the ‘Autodrom Most’, riding for the Official BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team, standing in for the injured Michael van der Mark.
Hickman was excited about the opportunity “I am looking forward to ‘Most’. It is a circuit that I have never been to before. I always like to go to new places. The circuit looks like an interesting layout. I am joining the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team for the second time now. I understand the bike from the BSB point of view but not from WorldSBK, especially with all the electronic changes and other things are slightly different, too, but I am really looking forward to the challenge”
FP1 and FP2 went well, with Hickman learning the circuit lap by lap, sector by sector.
The bike was very different to what he is used to and although the electronics were all working as they should, Hicky just needed to trust them a little more.
Lap times: FP1 1’34.716 and FP2 1’34.125. FP3 ended up as a wet session, which was a shame as Hicky needed more time on track.
During Superpole on Saturday morning, Hicky set a lap time of 1’33.373 leaving him in P21 for the race later in the day. It was as tough as expected, but faster than yesterday’s sessions so a good start and he set his fastest lap on the last lap even with a mistake in the last sector which cost Hicky valuable places.
RACE 1
Starting on row 7, his fastest lap time of the race 1’34.043. After a promising start up, moving up to P17 on lap 1, he then got pushed out by another rider, losing a substantial amount of time, crossing the line in P22.
Superpole Race
In the Superpole Race on Sunday morning, Hicky started again in P21, setting his fastest race lap time so far around the Most circuit at 1’33.990 even in the hotter conditions. Hicky and BMW were pleased with the progress being made and moving up a couple of places for Race 2 start, crossing the line in P19.
RACE 2
Starting 19th, the team had changed a few things for Hicky to try and his progress through the race was positive. Catching riders ahead of him and passing them and setting another fastest race lap for himself 1’33.777 he crossed the line in P14, securing WSBK points for himself and BMW.
Peter Hickman
The weekend was a tough learning curve right from the start, which I knew it would be but we made progress every single time out which is the biggest positive for me, even in the last race then, slightly faster race laps, consistency faster which is good.
My aim for the weekend was to learn as much as possible, help BMW with anything I could offer, and try to score some points. We managed to do, I think, all three and taking 2 points in Race Three was awesome.
No mistakes from me, no mistakes from the team, no issues and I have learnt quite a lot, so I have a lot to take away from the weekend thank you to everyone at BMW who gave me the opportunity to be here and hopefully, they will feel like I’ve done them a good job and maybe ask me back again”
Hicky
HICKMAN MAKES THE MOST OF IT