12/10/08 Fantastic finish for Hicky!!!
Monday, October 13th, 2008Louth rider Peter Hickman rode to am impressive second place in the final round of the National Superstock championship at Brands Hatch on Sunday, missing out on the win by the closest of margins, a mere four thousandths of a second, from this year’s champion Steve Brogan. He also completed his British Superbike rides for Red Viper in 25th and 16th position to bring his 2008 season to a successful close.
In-form Hicky romped away to secure a front row start ahead of the final round of the Superstock championship and settled into third place in the opening laps. He remained behind Alistair Seeley until lap seven when he made a beautiful pass at Paddock Hill Bend to move up into second place behind Brogan.
As the race progressed Hicky began to close the gap between himself and the leader and made a passing manoeuvre at Druids on the last lap. Although he had his wheel in front at the apex he had to run wide to negotiate the hairpin and Brogan regained his position. But Hickman was not beaten and pushed hard on the final half of the lap. His last chance to take the win was at Clearways on the approach to the chequered flag. But although the pair crossed the line together it was Brogan who got his tyre over the line first to seal the victory. The margin was so small, the gap was undistinguishable to the eye but the timekeepers were able to separate the two by just 0.004s.
Hickman had just under an hour to regain his composure before forming the grid for the final two legs of the 2008 British Superbike Championship where he again deputised for the injured Aaron Zanotti on the Red Viper Honda.
Qualifying threw up a few niggling problems for the 21-year-old rider but he battled through to clinch 22nd place on the grid and a start from row six.
The gremlins returned in the opening race and Hickman completed the 30 laps in 25th place. But after some hurried adjustments the bike handled much better and Hicky rode through to a strong 16th place, missing out on a points finish by less than half a second.
“The Superstock race went really well for me,” said Hicky. “You cant get any closer than 0.004 of a second. I was a little disappointed I didn’t get the win but other than that everything went really well. The team has been fantastic all year so I would like to say a big thank you to everyone at Ultimate Racing, Sleaford Racing and all our sponsors and supporters.
“The Red Viper Honda wasn’t very well in the first race. We had a problem with the number one bike this morning so I had to ride the second bike, which had not been ridden all weekend. In the race it developed a really bad front-end problem and every time I tried to turn in it tried to spit me off so I ended up a long way back. I basically stayed out there just to find out exactly what had gone wrong and we did manage to figure out what the problem was. The second race went really well. It took me a couple of laps to make sure the bike was ok but then I got my head down and just missed out on the points, so at the end of the day I am feeling really happy.”
With 20 points gained on Sunday, Hickman consolidated his third place in the final standings in the Superstock championship with a 17-point advantage over Alistair Seeley who was third in the race on Sunday.
Sunday completes Hickman’s season of racing – unless he and the team find the finances to race at the final round of the European Superstock championship at Portimao in Portugal on November 2.