A disappointing weekend at Snetterton for Hickman

Hickman came away from the circuit with a disappointing 10th place in his first race followed by a non-finish in race two when the Tyco Honda developed an electrical problem which caused the motor to cut out.

The weekend didn’t get off to the best of starts when, on the final lap of practice he highsided and crashed out of the session. Luckily both bike and rider emerged unscathed from the experience and he went on to complete the third free practice on Saturday in eighth position.

“The beast finally threw me off,” said Hickman. “We have reached the half way stage of the championship and this is the first time we have crashed so I can’t complain.”

Qualifying started well for Hicky who rode through to an amazing fourth place in Q1. But things didn’t run so smoothly in Q2 and he ended up in 13th place for a fourth row start to the first 17 lap affair.

Hickman said: “Things were going really well in the first round of qualifying. But then we just couldn’t put a lap together in round two and there was insufficient time to come back in for a new tyre so unfortunately I ended up 13th.”

Despite his progress being hampered by the pace car in the early laps Hicky made it through the midfielders to complete the race in 10th place to pick up six championship points. He put in some fast laps which elevated his grid position for race two up a row and he began his campaign from the third row.

But just as he was beginning to settle into the race he encountered a problem with the bike and the engine cut out causing him to retire. Just one lap later a huge crash upfield caused the race to be halted and a new race declared over nine laps. Although Hicky was given a place on the back of the grid for the restart the bike refused to start and he had to sit it out in the pits.

“It was disappointing for us,” said Hickman. “We were up into 10th position and I felt quite comfortable behind the others. We were in a battle for sixth place but the bike had a problem and stopped. We don’t really know what the problem is as yet, it is some sort of electrical problem as it just cut out.”

The non finish drops Hicky down the order from seventh to eighth but the points are still agonisngly close and a couple of good results in the next round could see him edge back into the top six. Only the top six riders go through to the showdown and have a chance of winning the title and Hickman is determined he will make the final six.