Official Peter Hickman Website

Hickman and the FHO BMW Team headed back to Oulton Park for Round 9 and after great results from Round 1, the technically demanding circuit suited the M 1000 RR.

Hicky showed his intentions by setting his fast lap early on in FP1 on Friday 1:35.103 on lap 7. In FP2 he saved the last lap to set his fastest time over the two sessions securing P2 overall with 1:34.374s sending him straight into Superpicks Q2.

On Saturday morning the weather had changed to damp mixed conditions. Hicky with the rest of the field went out on full wets. Halfway through Q2, Peter went up into 2nd but with 4 mins remaining, this was not going to secure that spot. The chequered flag fell with Hicky in 11th for the race one start later on Saturday afternoon.

Race One – 14 Laps
Starting from 11th, Hicky got beaten back to 14th place in the first few corners but taking advantage of the bike’s agility, he was soon back up to 9th battling with Glenn Irwin. Breaking away from Irwin, Hicky set the fastest lap of the race on lap 5. Peter then went chasing after Bridewell closing in lap by lap. O’Halloran went down and promoted Peter to 6th. Saving the pass on Bridewell until the last lap, Hicky crossed the line in 5th.

Race Two – 18 Laps
A front row start for Hicky alongside O’Halloran and Iddon. Hicky was squeezed back to 4th after Tarran came through into 3rd. Looking comfortable though, Peter waited for a chance and slipped up the inside of Mackenzie to take 3rd on lap 3.

On the start of lap 4 Hicky came alongside Iddon and went up the inside of him into 2nd at Old Hill corner, frantically gesturing to Iddon that there was smoke coming from his bike. Iddon came back as they dropped through Cascades and Hicky was still trying to indicate what he thought was an oil issue. All this caused him to lose momentum and dropped back into the persuing pack.

A frustrating race, Hicky certainly had the pace to be on the podium but it wasn’t to be and he crossed the line in 5th.

Race Three – 18 Laps
P10 start, Peter got himself trapped in the pack, punched down to 13th by the end of the first lap. Settling down, he started to come through, lap by lap persuing the next targeted rider. On lap 6, Hicky went by Andrew Irwin and started to close down O’Halloran and in front of him Glenn. The O’Show crashed out promoting Hicky to 8th.

On lap 15 Iddon then ran off into the gravel, Hicky went into 7th focusing on Buchan and on lap 17 finally got past him.

A 3-second penalty for Tarran after coming together with Jackson, who fell, Peter crossed the line in 4th.

Peter Hickman
R1: 5th, R2: 5th, R3: 4th
“Overall it has been a good weekend for the FHO Racing BMW team. We started the weekend really strong and were second at the end of Friday. Then on Saturday morning the weather really changed and I struggled with the mixed conditions, not entirely sure why, I just couldn’t find the feeling that I wanted, but a second would have put us on the front row instead of row four. It wasn’t what we needed and that put us a long way back for the first race.

“I didn’t make the best first lap and that made it really hard. I had the pace to be at the front but it just didn’t materialise, so finishing in fifth wasn’t too bad considering.

“In race two I started on the front row and got away well and then got caught up with a weird situation with Christian Iddon where it looked like there was smoke coming off his bike and I thought it was oil so I backed off a bit. It then made me go backwards to fifth or sixth and then I struggled to recover after that. I felt like I had the pace to do what we needed to, to be on the podium but it just didn’t happen.

“In race three I started tenth, which wasn’t ideal, but the same story as I felt we had the pace to be at the front. It was our best result of the weekend because of Taz’s penalty put him back a few seconds. Fourth, in the end, wasn’t the best result but it wasn’t the worst either. We will take the positives, such as, we are 13 points closer to the championship leader after this weekend and move on to Donington Park where we broke the lap record a few weeks ago and see what we can do there.”

Thanks to everyone for your support!

Hicky