Superbike top-six finish for Hickman at Knockhill

Peter Hickman travelled to Scotland where he recorded an 11th and then a sixth place in the two races comprising the fifth round of the British Superbike championship at Knockhill.
Peter Hickman. Photo: David Yeomaasns.Peter Hickman. Photo: David Yeomaasns.
Peter Hickman. Photo: David Yeomaasns.

At just over 1.2 miles, Knockhill is the shortest circuit on the BSB calendar and, as such, times are incredibly close with the top 18 riders all within a second of the quickest time in free practice.

However, when it came to qualifying the heavens had opened and a huge thunderstorm delayed the session for over two hours. Once the rain slowed the riders took part in one 40-minute qualifying session with Hicky finishing in 18th place for a sixth row start to the first 30-lap race.

On a drying track Hickman completed the first lap in 15th position and began to make his move forward but was unable to make much impression on the leading riders and completed the race in 11th place.

Starting the second race in dry and sunny conditions, Hickman (pictured) was soon circulating in seventh place.

He lost out to Dan Linfoot on lap 11 but retook him on lap 22 and was reeling in Brad Ray looking to overtake him on lap 25.

But as he was right in his tyre tracks Ray’s bike suffered a problem and Hickman was covered in cloud of smoke.

Luckily, he was able to avoid the fluid that was being emitted from Ray’s machine and the race was immediately red flagged.

As the two-thirds distance had passed the result was declared with Hickman being awarded sixth place and 10 championship points which, along with the five picked up in race one, move him up to joint-seventh in the rider standings and just one place from the top six that go through to the end of season shootout for the title.

Hickman said: “It’s been a bit of a tough weekend and I’ve struggled in a couple of areas on the track which were losing me a lot of time.

“The bike worked well in the wet at Brands Hatch but not here, so 18th in qualifying was far from ideal and it made life difficult in race one.

“Given where I started, 11th wasn’t a bad result and I had a much better starting position for race two which made a big difference.

“I was losing a lot of time going into the Hairpin due to this inherent issue we’re having with the brakes, but I managed to get sixth and am now joint seventh in the championship so we’re slowly getting there.”

The next round is at Snetterton in Norfolk on July 19-21, when Hickman will be hoping for two good results to move him up into the top six.

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