Louth ace Peter Hickman on the trail of more Isle of Man TT glory
Louth racer Peter Hickman began his assault on the 2024 Isle of Man TT races in Monday’s practice where he was the fastest rider in both the Superstock and Supertwin classes, third in Superbike and seventh in Supersport, writes Helen Pask.
It's early days yet as racing doesn't start until Saturday, but he is looking good to collect some more TT trophies to add to his collection over the following week.
Hickman is the TT’s most successful rider of recent years, scoring 12 victories at the last four TTs and holding the current Mountain course lap record at 136.358 mph.
This would be a mind-boggling speed on any motorcycle, but he achieved it on a near showroom-spec Superstock bike.
So how did Hickman go faster on the Superstock BMW than his Superbike? “Because I wanted to,” he said.
“If I needed to go faster on the Superbike in the Senior, I could have but there was no reason to go that fast because I’d got a 10 or 15 second lead.
“When I broke the record in the second Superstock race last year I got a really clear lap and was just in my own little zone. I thought I’d have a little play and see how we ended up.”
Hickman has the same machinery line-up as 2023 - a BMW S100RR Superbike and Superstock, a Triumph 765 Supersport and a Yamaha R7 Supertwin.
Last year those bikes took him to Senior victory, two Superstock successes and a Supertwin victory.
He said: “Last year the Superbike was an absolute pain for the whole two weeks.
“We couldn’t get the thing to handle until the warm-up for the Senior.
“It was shaking its head everywhere, so then I had no brake because the headshakes knocked the brake pads back from the brake discs.
“And in the Superbike race the quick-shifter packed up and I had no blipper for clutch-less downshifts for the entire race.
“That’s the TT – every day is a school day. There’s always something new, something different, something to learn.
“Fingers crossed everything will be fine this year, but you never really know until you go out.”
Hickman has a pretty hectic schedule with qualifying over the rest of the week ahead of racing which, weather permitting, starts on Saturday.
Race Schedule - Saturday Supersport race. Sunday - Superbike race. Monday - rest day. Tuesday - Superstock race, Supertwin race. Wednesday - Supersport race. Thursday - rest day. Friday - Superstock race, Supertwin race. Saturday - Senior TT race.