Peter Hickman podium delight at Donington Park

Peter Hickman secured a podium finish to the first race at Donington Park in the penultimate round of the Bennett’s British Superbike championship on Saturday, going on to finish his other two races in eighth and 11th place, writes Helen Pask.
John Lomas
By John Lomas
Published 3rd Oct 2022, 13:07 GMT
Updated 3rd Oct 2022, 13:07 GMT
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After qualifying in fourth place the 35 year old Louth rider began the first race, his 400th start in the series, from the second row of the grid.

He settled into fifth place for the first few laps before moving back up into fourth position on lap six of 15.

It looked like a close fourth place was on the cards for him until the final corner when Brad Ray ran wide, which allowed Hickman to nip past and secure the third place, his second podium finish of the current campaign.

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Peter Hickman on his way to a Donington podium place – photo by Dave YeomansPeter Hickman on his way to a Donington podium place – photo by Dave Yeomans
Peter Hickman on his way to a Donington podium place – photo by Dave Yeomans

He also set the fastest lap of the race with a 1m 29.030s - 100.57mph which meant that he was to start the second race from pole position.

But he didn't get the best of starts, being third into Redgate for the first time and then down to fourth by the end of the opening lap.

He then dropped another place to fifth one lap later and continued in that position until the half way stage of the 20 laps when he passed Andy Irwin to move into fourth.

But as the race wore on he began to lose ground and ended up in eighth place at the chequered flag.

The final race of the day was full of drama, Hickman was unable to take his position on the second row as he encountered a problem with the FHO Racing BMW and didn't make it onto the track in time to start the warm up lap until after the rest of the field had already gone and had to start the race from the back of the grid.

He made up places to 19th on the first lap when the red flag halted the race for a crash.

At the restart he was able to take up his original grid position of fourth but, along with another rider, was pushed wide and lost seven places.

He began to make his way back up the field and was up to eighth place when the safety car was deployed for another crash.

Once the track was clear he once again made headway and up to fifth place on lap 11. But he encountered a problem with the bike and slowed on the final lap losing five places and crossing the finish line in 11th position.

The points accrued from the three races at Donington Park place him joint ninth in the rider standings with Danny Buchan on 227 points with one round, three races, to race which will decide who will win the riders cup.

The season finale is at Brands Hatch over the weekend of October 14th/16th.

Related topics:Louth