British Superbikes: Louth's Peter Hickman moves up into top six

He was never out of the top five during free practice on his Smiths Racing BMW and made it comfortably through to the second phase of qualifying where the pace quickened.

And although he was 0.7secs faster than his previous personal best lap time and on lap record pace, he could only secure 10th place and a fourth row start to the first of the two 16-lap races.

“Unfortunately being under the lap record only gets you 10th in BSB at the moment as the class is so competitive,” he said.

As the first race got under way, Hicky was eighth on the first lap, but moved ahead of Jake Dixon to settle into seventh.

With three laps remaining he caught and passed John Hopkins, but despite pulling clear of Hopkins, he couldn’t shake off the attentions of Dixon who followed him through and then nipped past to snatch sixth place on the final lap.

With just a tenth-of-a-second separating the two at the line, Hicky had to be content with seventh place.

Starting race two from the middle of the second row, Hicky didn’t get the best of starts and was pushed back in the rush to the first corner.

He was forced further back to 11th by the end of the first lap, but then began to make up ground.

The leading pack had pulled a gap which was impossible to close and Hicky circulated in eighth through the early laps before moving up to seventh on lap 11.

He began to hunt down Dan Linfoot, some way ahead and closed to within a tenth-of-a-second on the final lap.

As they exited the final corner, Hicky had his wheel in front and snatched sixth place at the lien by just three-thousandths-of-a-second.

Hicky said: “It just wasn’t my day today. But a seventh and then a sixth give me sufficient points to move back up into the top six so I have to be happy with that.”

The 19 points moved Hicky back into the top six in the overall standings on 93 points with the next round at Brands Hatch from July 21 to 23.