RAF Reserves Honda’s Peter Hickman has hailed his first MCE British Superbike win as ‘unbelievable’ after he dominated the final race of the day at Cadwell Park in very wet conditions.
It has been a mixed year for the Louth lad. He started the season without a ride, and then had a successful debut at the Isle of Man TT, only for him to take up the sit of the late Simon Andrews in the Lee Hardy outfit.
Hickman had his best qualifying session this weekend at his local track, and started both races from the second row. He finished race one in sixth, but managed to do even better to take maximum points and the top step of the podium in the final race at the Lincolnshire track.
In the end Hickman got the better of Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki’s Shane Byrne to take the victory, and did it with over a one second advantage. This is the best BSB weekend ever for the Brit, and even though he is with a fairly new team, things are continuing to go well for the racer. Now he has got debut race win under his belt he has to keep up the good form for the rest of the season.
“It has been so unbelievable and it has been a mint weekend. I said I would be happy for the front two rows, but I wanted to get the front row in qualifying so I was a bit disappointed in that after getting a second row start," said Hickman, speaking to bikesportnews.com from the track.
"I felt I should have been on the podium in race one. But then in race two I felt that I wanted to get on the podium again. I was starting to feel good on the bike during the citing lap after making some changes to the bike on the grid.
“But then my confidence was dashed when I saw Josh Brookes fall on the warm-up lap and that completely dashed my confidence when I saw him tumble in front of me. But then I thought I should go for it in race two and then I had a good start. I ended up getting past Byrne and I didn’t look back.
“Everything just clicked with the bike today – and in front of the local fans was just great too. But at one point it looked like Byrne was coming back so I put my head down and dug in and managed to break him again.
“The team and Lee Hardy worked their arses off so I feel like I am giving something back. This win is for Simon too – as well as the year. Now we have set a high standard and I will have to keep it up at Donington.”
