Circuito de Navarra is a new circuit to the British Superbike race calendar for the 2024 season, located in the northwest of Spain. At 2.426 miles long, the main configuration offers a combination of fast, slow and technical sections.
Whilst learning the new circuit, Hicky and the team changed various settings to understand the characteristics of the new circuit on his BMW M 1000 RR. Hicky recorded over 180 laps throughout the two-day test.
Round One of the BSB was officially underway on Saturday morning with Hicky continuing his consistent lap times from early in the week. A lap time of 1:37.280 on lap 6 of FP1 took him along with the top 12 riders straight into Superpole. He went on to qualify P6 for Race One the following day with a 1:37.239 lap time.
Hicky
“I’m really happy with how today’s Superpole went to be honest. I’m not a one-lap person so to finish sixth and end up on the second row for tomorrow’s first race is a good result for us.”
Sunday
Hicky got a good start and stayed in touch of the leading group. However, early on in the 20-lap race Hicky developed arm pump, something he doesn’t normally suffer with. Across the race distance, Hicky tried to manage the situation but while doing so lost places as he couldn’t hold on properly, by the end of the race he had dropped to 12th.
His fastest lap was 1:37.504 on lap 6.
For the second race of the day, Hicky again got a good start but was caught up in the pack as they all headed into the first corner. By half race distance, he’d started closing the gap to the front group and had settled into 10th place. During the closing stages of the race, Hicky and his FHO teammate Josh Brookes were matching the times of the riders in the leading group but it was too little too late and Hicky crossed the line in 10th.
His fastest lap was 1:37.533 on lap 11.
Hicky
“I had a really good start in the first race, in fact, both starts today have been pretty good. But in the opening laps of the first race I developed arm pump, which I don’t normally struggle with, so I changed my riding style and tried to calm myself down to be able to get rid of it, but it’s really hard to do that once it’s started. By the end of the race, I’d managed to relax enough that I could hold on and I was fast again, but by then I’d already lost time and we finished poorly in 12th. However we’ve got a lot of positives to take from that race and it shows what we did at the Donington test and here in the week is working, we are going in the right direction.
Something I have always complained about with this bike is the stopping and at the moment I’m not complaining about that, it’s now some other things that we need to work on.
For the second race, I got boxed in early on lap 1, which meant I couldn’t make use of the good start I had. But overall the BMW was really good and I had no arm pump, we were just weak in a few areas. Although the results are not brilliant with a 12th and a 10th, it’s quite a positive first round from where we have been and we’re leaving Spain in high spirits
A big thank you to Faye and the FHO Racing Team for the effort as always!”.
Next Up – Oulton Park Official Test 1st and 2nd May!
Positive Vibes for Hickman Leaving Spain