After the crazy weekend at Oulton Park, Hickman and FHO Racing hit the road and headed to Donington Park for Round 10 of the British Superbike Championship.
Friday’s sessions were brought forward due to weather closing in late on in the day, Hicky went out and set a 1:31.168 on lap 17, to be third fastest in the session.
In FP2 most of the field stayed in their garages due to weather, only Harrison and Haslam went out. Hicky’s pace from the FP1 session secured him in the Superpicks Qualifying spot once more for Saturday.
On Saturday’s Superpicks Qualifying, Hicky left it until lap 6 to set his fastest lap, enough to start on row 2, P4 with a 1:28.749 alongside Kyle Ryde and behind O’Halloran.
Race One Sprint Race 15 laps Hicky’s 400th BSB START!
He got away well with the leading group, which then broke away from the rest of the riders. A few laps in Hicky made a mistake and nearly lost the back end, dropping him back towards Glenn Irwin, but he made up for lost time, regaining his composure and over 5 laps caught back up with the leading trio.
Leaving it until the last lap, Hicky put himself in a strong position to try and take Brad Ray into the Melbourne Hairpin, Brad was too strong on the brakes this time but into Godard’s he knew Hicky was close and outbraked himself running wide, Hicky tucked under him to secure 3rd place on a run to the line. A podium on his 400th BSB start!
Hicky’s fastest lap was 1:29.030 on lap 8, the fastest lap of the race.
Race Two 20 laps
P1 start for Hicky! Alongside Brad Ray and Tom Sykes.
Hicky got away well but dropped back with an electronic problem as the dash, quick-shifter etc all stopped working coming out of turn 1 on lap 1, causing him to drop back into the pack, giving him a tough race to the end even though the bike did sort itself out.
Crossing the line in P8, Hicky’s fastest lap was a 1:28.979 on lap 4.
Race Three 20 laps
A row two start for Hicky, but due to the electronics issue taking time to fix, he missed the pit lane closing time meaning he had to start at the back of the grid.
Hicky made his way from 26th to 18th by the end of lap one, but the race was red-flagged due to an incident with Chrissy Rouse.
The race restart was declared a New Race, so Hicky found himself back on the grid in P6.
Struggling with tyre life towards the end of the race, Hicky looked like he would bring it home in 7th, but had to take avoiding action following another riders lunge at the last corner on the last lap running him onto the grass, letting Vickers and a few others past him, dropping down to 11th.
Hicky’s fastest lap was a 1:29.247 on lap 5
Peter Hickman
“It’s been a bit of an unusual weekend, the good news is we’ve been fast. It was great to get third in Saturday’s race, we’d qualified well, it was a good race and we had hoped for the same on Sunday but it was a bit of a strange one.
“In the first, we had an electronic problem right off the start. I should’ve been in second place going into Craner on the first lap but the dash went off, the quick-shifter and everything stopped working, and then it came back on 5 seconds later, so I was a little bit tentative for the first few laps and lost a few places. Then towards the end, I struggled with the tyres, the rear was shot really early which we didn’t expect.
“Right before the start of race 3, we had another electronic issue before we even went out to the grid, I had to start from the back, battled up to 18th and then the red flag for Chrissy’s accident, I hope he’s ok.
For the restart, the race was declared a completely new race, so I could start from my original grid spot of 6th, however, I struggled with tyre life again. We made some changes to try and make it better but it didn’t help, which is unusual for us. Even with this I should’ve been seventh but Ryan got a bit excited on the last corner and had a go at a pass on me. He didn’t touch me but I had to go on the grass and ended up 11th which wasn’t great but it’s just one of those things.”
(We hope Chrissy makes a full recovery)
Hicky
IT’S 400 AND NOT OUT FOR HICKMAN