Tyco Honda's Peter Hickman is continuing his impressive performance at Thruxton this weekend in the MCE British Superbike Championship by taking third, foruth and seventh in the first three practice sessions ahead of today's qualifying.

Drawing attention more than usual, www.bikesportnews.com caught up with the Louth rider about his progresss, Hickman said: 'We are just getting there, it just took a bit of time as I only rode the bike twice before the start of the season so I always knew it was going to be a couple of rounds before we would get somewhere near. At Croft and here we are somewhere near.

'The bike is absolutely mega, the bike is working mega, I can't fault it. The bike has been the same pretty much since Brands Hatch. I spent all of Brands Hatch setting the bike up how I wanted it and it's stayed the same literally, it was just a case of getting used to it. The whole team works absolutely mega. The bike's capable of winning races, it's the first bike that I have ever sat on in Superbikes that can win races, it's absolutely awesome. I'm loving it and just love riding my bike.'

His current situation is hard to believe as the deal with Tyco Racing wasn't carried until the end of January, and astonishingly if this partnership didn't occur, Hickman would not have been racing at all this year.

Hickman, who today set his fastest lap on a race tyre not a qualifer, said: 'I expected to be around third or four, or to be somewhere near and here we are. We are aiming for top six in the championship, we are 10th at the moment and not that far off the top six so fingers crossed we have a good meeting this weekend and we can get a bit nearer.'