British Superbikes: Louth rider Peter Hickman ready for Silverstone opener

Hickman will ride the Kawasaki ZX-10R in round one of the 2016 British Superbike championship at the Northamptonshire venue on Sunday.

Following a series of winter tests in Spain, Hicky attended the first British Superbike test at Silverstone last week where he put the Kawasaki through its paces in front of the fans for the first time.

Although he attended the second test at Donington, the team did not take part in the test, but instead held a photoshoot.

The three riders, Peter Hickman, James Ellison and Leon Haslam also posed with the rest of the Superbike riders for the Class of 2016 photo on the grid during the day.

Hickman, who finished ninth in last year’s championship, said: “I have a front end chatter issue, but apart from that everything is mint and I’m raring to go.

“It will be good to get the bike on the track under race conditions to see how it performs against the rest of the field.

“I’m sure it will be competitive and I will be looking for a couple of strong points finishes to get my championship challenge underway.

“The team is fielding three riders this year and we are all expecting to be running up the sharp end so it’s exciting times ahead for us all.”

The weekend begins with two free practice sessions on Friday at 10.15am and 3.15pm followed by a third free practice on Saturday at 10.05am.

The three-part qualifying session takes place on Saturday at 4.02pm and this will set the grid for the first race on Sunday.

There is a 15-minute warm-up on Sunday morning in preparation for racing later in the day.

Race one, held over 14 laps, is set for 1.30pm followed by race two over the same distance at 4.30pm.

Both races will be broadcast live on Eurosport 2.