Three points finishes for Louth ace Peter Hickman at Thruxton
Louth rider Peter Hickman completed all three races in the points in round seven of the Bennetts British Superbike championship at Thruxton on Sunday.
After completing qualifying in 13th place Hickman started the first of three races from the head of row five.
He held 14th place through the early laps but at the midway stage of the 20 laps he began to move further forward and on the final lap he crossed the finish line in 10th position.
Hickman said: “A P10 finish in race one today here at Thruxton, all of us were fighting and changing positions lap after lap.”
Because the racing had been so close with only a fraction of a second between a large group of riders, even though he completed the first race in 10th Hickman found himself down on the sixth row for the start of the Sprint race.
He got a good start, but the safety car and then a red flag halted the race and then the safety car came out again for another crash.
It ended up being a five lap dash to the flag with Hickman finishing in 13th place.
With a better grid position for the final race Hicky started from the fourth row and soon made his way up to fifth place on lap six.
He held the position for three laps and was in the mix for a podium finish, but he had a moment when in the middle of the pack and dropped back to 10th.
He recovered back to eighth but by then the tyre was spent and he brought the bike home in 11th place.
Hickman said: “We struggled little bit with the extra hard tyres.
"I just couldn't get a good lap in during qualifying.
"I have never been a qualifying sort of rider and with the field being so tight it was so difficult to come through the pack.
"I managed to pull myself up to sixth in race three from 12th on the grid, which was ok-ish but had used too much of the tyre and dropped back.
"But onwards and upwards, it’s Cadwell Park next, right on my doorstep!”
The next round is at Cadwell is over the Bank Holiday weekend of August 24th-26th