Louth racer Hickman records points finish in Donington Park sprint
Fresh from his strong performance at the North West 200, Louth racer Peter Hickman and the newly formed race team 8TEN Racing were at Donington Park for round two of the Bennett's British Superbike championship where he recorded a points finish in the sprint race on Sunday.
Free practice went well for the Lincolnshire ace who completed the third session in eighth position. He went on to finish second in first qualifying but the second session was spoilt by two red flags and Hickman found himself down in 14th position and a fifth row grid position.
In the opening race on Saturday Hicky got away well but his progress didn't last long as he and another rider went for the same piece of tarmac at Coppice and both crashed uninjured into the gravel trap.
Hickman said: “Well today didn’t go to plan as I got tangled up with Storm Stacey at Coppice on lap one after getting a mega start! We’ll go again tomorrow.”
Starting the short Sprint race from the middle of the seventh row it was always going to be difficult to get into a point scoring position but Hickman gave it his best shot and made up three places on the opening lap. He circulated in 17th place for a while before finally making a pass on Lee Jackson and at the half way stage of the 12 laps was closing in on Luke Hedger. One lap later he passed Hedger but was too far away from the group in front to get near enough to make a challenge and had to be content with 15th place plus one championship point.
Hickman was placed on the sixth row for the final race of the weekend and rode through the pack to 16th position on lap 13. Again he was too far away from the group ahead so he rode a lonely race through the final few laps to cross the finish line in 16th place, just outside the points.
Hickman now travels to the Isle of Man for the 2025 TT races which begin on Monday, May 26.