Peter Hickman

Louth rider Peter Hickman came away from Mallory Park with a handful of points and two podium finishes in round seven of the British Superbike championship on Sunday to retain his second place in the Mirror.com Cup.



Nothing went to plan for the 22-year-old Lincolnshire rider as he had to contend with some major problems right from the start of the weekend.



He had been running on borrowed forks but they had to be returned prior to the weekend. Hicky managed to acquire a replacement but they were different and affected the set up on the bike which had to be resolved before he was able to put in any fast laps.



Friday’s free practice brought more problems for the young rider as the Ultimate Racing Yamaha R1 broke a crank during the session. The only replacement engine available to him was a standard engine which would be well down on power to the rest of the field and at one stage he considered pulling out of the races and returning home.



But after a few minutes to gather his thoughts he decided to stay and see what happened in qualifying. More problems awaited Hicky as in final free practice the bike refused to start and he lost much of the session before replacing a fuse which did the trick. He managed to get one lap in before the flag went out but at least the bike was up and running in time for qualifying.



Considering he was running on a standard engine Hicky put in a sterling effort to claim 19th place and a fifth row start to the two races on Sunday.



“I figured this was going to be a hard weekend but it turned out to be more difficult than we anticipated. First of all we had to adjust to the new forks and then in practice the crank snapped. It’s not done many miles and it is a standard crank so really it shouldn’t be doing that. So that messed up our number one bike so we had to borrow my sponsor’s road bike that he uses on track days. We put the forks and yolks and swing arm on it and here we are ready to go! To be fair I didn’t think I would get into the top 20 so to finish qualifying in 19th place is good.”



Race one saw Hicky circulating in 18th place for much of the race until a multi-bike pile up involving the six leading riders brought the red flag out with a result declared after 22 of the scheduled 30 laps. The fallen riders’ misfortune actually benefited Hicky as he was catapulted up the finishing order to 12th position to claim a further 4 championship points in the main series and a third place in the Cup. He had been running third in the cup for most of the race and that position was not affected.



Race two began in wet weather and as the race progressed the rain became worse until the track was considered too dangerous to continue and the race was brought to an early end at half distance and half points awarded.



Hicky ended his race in 14th place to pick up another championship point in the main series plus 10 points in the Cup for second place in which he maintains his second place 44.5 points behind series leader Gary Mason.



The next round is at Brands Hatch on August 9 when Hicky will have three races to contend with, one on Saturday and two on Sunday. He will be seeking a trio of strong results to maintain his position in the Mirror.com Cup and edge nearer to the series lead.