After a frustrating few rounds at Knockhill, Snetterton and Brands Hatch, Hicky needed to get back to fighting at the front.
Hickman’s goal again was to get top-ten finishes and some important championship points for FHO Racing and himself at Thruxton.
The combined Free practice sessions saw Hicky set a 1:15.961 in FP2 meaning he was automatically into Qualifying 2 for Saturday.
Qualifying saw Hicky post a 1:15.630 lap putting him in P13 on the grid for Race One. The BMW was struggling with the compulsory hard tyre and the team couldn’t find the one lap pace needed for a good qualifying.
Race One 14 laps
Starting on row 5 with Tommy Bridewell and Dean Harrison. Hicky got away well and managed to pass Buchan and break away from that group, staying in touch with the riders ahead. Passing Mossey on lap 13 and then Kennedy on lap 14, crossing the line in P10.
Hickmans’ fastest lap of the race was 1:16.004 on lap 4
Race Two 20 laps
P16 start for Hicky alongside teammate Josh Brookes. Hicky stayed in touch again with the leading pack and pursued the guys ahead. Changing places with Iddon and Kent, whilst chasing Haslam.
Haslam eventually finished narrowly ahead of Hickman who crossed the line in eighth.
Hickmans’ fastest lap of the race was a 1:16.264 on lap 11
Race Three 20 laps
A P11 start for Hickman for the last race of the day. Another good start, but again fighting with Iddon, Kent and Kennedy. On the final lap, while in 10th place, Danny Kent’s rear shock link failed causing him to lose control heading off the track, Hickman lifted and narrowly missed Kent’s bike as it came back across the track. Jack Kennedy was not so lucky and got caught and went down behind him with Kent.
Hickmans’ fastest lap of the race was 1:15.917 on lap 5
Peter Hickman
Race 1: 10th – Race 2: 8th – Race 3: 9th
“Coming into Thruxton I was super excited to get here, it’s one of the best tracks in the country for myself, a track I’ve always gone well at. Right from a kid actually the first time I ever raced here I broke the lap record, so it’s been a good circuit for me throughout my career and I was looking forward to getting here, especially off the back of a few bad rounds.
Brands was a lot closer for us, so I was hoping to build on that and in some respects, we have done that scoring an eighth, ninth and 10th. It’s not the end of the world, it’s not where we would have liked to have finished but it’s solid enough, but we need to and should be in the top ten all the time.
The bike has been hard work and Josh has struggled a bit more than I have this weekend, which is probably the first time this year it’s been that way round. I don’t know if it’s that my size helps a bit more around here, it’s probably the only circuit where my size does help and doesn’t hinder me as I can get hold of the bike and manhandle it a bit. There’s not so much stop, start and it means I can carry the corner speed and I don’t miss out due to my size.
Overall, I’m content enough, it would have been nice to have been a lot closer to the front position-wise, but even in the last race with one lap to go I was only three seconds off the win, so actually we were not that far off in the end.
The team have worked super hard over the weekend, so thanks to them, hopefully, we can turn things around for the next one at Cadwell.”
TOP TEN FINISHES FOR HICKMAN