Louth Superbikes ace Peter Hickman picks up three top 10 finishes at Thruxton

Hickman said: “Obviously Thruxton is usually a mega round for me but this weekend has been a bit of a struggle still.

“We were forced to use the extra hard compound Tyre here this weekend which really doesn’t suit our bike at all, so from the offset we were up against it.

“However three top 10s are a positive step forwards from where we have been the last few rounds and in the last race with one lap to go I was only three seconds off the win, so all in all not a bad weekend.

“I am now looking forward to my home race in a couple of weeks.”

The Thruxton tarmac is notoriously abrasive which is hard on tyres and the teams were given an extra hard compound tyre to help but unfortunately the tyres didn't suit many of the bikes including Hickman’s BMW.

After completing his qualifying in 13th position Hickman lined up on row four for the start of the Sprint race on Saturday. He passed fellow BMW rider Danny Buchan on the opening lap and spent the rest of the race in 12th place chasing down the riders ahead.

On the penultimate lap he passed Luke Mossey and then on the run to the flag on the final lap he passed Jack Kennedy to secure 10th place.

Starting race two on Sunday from the head of the sixth row Hicky began his move forward picking off riders one by one until he made it through to ninth on lap 15 of 20.

On lap 18 he passed Danny Kent to move into eighth place but although he got to within 0.1s of the rider ahead he ran out of time and had to be content with eighth place.

Hickman lined up on row four for the start of the final race but was unable make much progress in the early laps.

But by the halfway stage of the 20 lap affair he began to make progress forward and on the final lap Hickman found himself up in ninth position which he managed to hold to the chequered flag.

The next Bennetts Superbikes round is at Cadwell Park, just a few miles from Hickman’s home this coming Bank Holiday weekend, 26th-28th August.