Louth ace Peter Hickman makes debut outing on new Superbike BMW

Starting the 12 lap Sprint race from the sixth row once again, Hickman circulated in 15th place through the first lap before being passed by Josh Brookes.

He continued to circulate in 16th place through the remainder of the laps and crossed the finish line just one place outside the points.

Hickman said: “it was not quite where we wanted to be, but we’re happy with the progress made.

“The Superbike is going well and I am enjoying the racing and absolutely loving the BMW Motorrad M1000RR.”

It was a last minute rush to get the bike ready for racing, finishing just half an hour before the first free practice session.

Hickman went out using the track time as a shakedown test before going into qualifying with just a few fast laps under his belt.

Lining up for the first race on the sixth row of the grid was not ideal but Hickman made good progress through the field.

He dropped to 17th in the early laps but as he began to get used to the new BMW by the halfway stage was moving forward picking off the midfielders until he reached 13th position.

The leading group was too far ahead to make further progress and he crossed the finish line in 13th position to pick up the team’s first three championship points.

Hickman added: “It was a positive first race after only 30 laps of practice.

“The team is mega and worked so hard getting the Superbike built in time and the support of our sponsors and suppliers has been awesome.”

Starting the 12 lap Sprint race from the sixth row once again, Hickman circulated in 15th place through the first lap before being passed by Josh Brookes.

He continued to circulate in 16th place through the remainder of the laps and crossed the finish line just one place outside the points.

“Considering the rest of the riders had lots of testing time, we had done well to be only a couple of seconds off the pace in practice,” he said.

“We were on the back foot a bit but it is what it is and we just had to get on with it.”

Hickman now turns his attention to the North West 200 Road Races which take place in Northern Ireland with practice starting on Wednesday and Thursday and racing on Thursday and Saturday.

TV coverage will as usual be by BBC North Ireland and can be found on the BBC Sports app.

Also at Oulton Park and riding for the Louth-based PHR Performance Triumph team on the Triumph Daytona 660, Harrison Dessoy rode to a convincing second place in the opening round of the 2025 National Sportbike Championship on Sunday.

Lining up in fourth place at the head of the second row, Dessoy took the lead coming out of the chicane on the second lap.

He remained in control for the majority of the laps but it was a close run race with the top five riders covered by just under a second.

By lap 10 of 12 the top three pulled away from the pack and Dutch rider Kas Beekmans made an attempt at taking the lead.

He made a pass stick on the following lap at the first turn but Dessoy did not give up and stuck with him.

It all came down to the last corner at Druids when Dessoy managed to get past but ran slightly wide leaving Beekmans to take the win by a whisker.

The next round is at Donington Park over the weekend of 16th/18th May.