RAF Reserves Honda’s Peter Hickman had his first experience of riding his new bike in the wet during the second MCE British Superbike race at Brands Hatch yesterday. His new team had to guess the correct set-up as the guys haven’t tested with him on the bike in the rain before.

But the TT newcomer managed to hold on to finish 13th in the final outing of the day, in the earlier race Hickman was three places shy of a top ten finish, but admits that he had the pace to do better, as he was held up by other riders. Even though he nabbed some valuable points for his team he is still feeling a tad disappointed as he believes he has the speed to do even better onboard his Honda.

“We were 12th in race one, and left me a little bit disappointed as we had the pace to run with the top ten, but I got stuck behind people, who I was faster than - as I was half a second off the fastest lap of the race. So that was a little bit frustrating,” said Hickman, speaking to bikesportnews.com at the track.

“In race two I hit a bit of Ellison’s bike after he crashed and I bent the front wheel and let all the pressure out of the front tyre. But luckily the red flags came out. Then I got a good start during the second re-start, and then I started to make some in-roads and then the red flags came out again.

“Then the rain came and I have never ridden the bike in the wet before so we had to guess for set-up. We were strong on the GP section of the circuit, but as soon as I got to the Indy track I couldn’t ride the bike. I finished 13th so I think that is a bit rubbish. But we were going into race two completely blind as we haven’t ridden the bike in the rain before.”