RAF Reserves Honda man Peter Hickman has had to fundamentally change the way he rides a big chunk of Donington Park’s tarmac at this weekend’s MCE British Superbike round but it has paid off as he will head the second row in tomorrow’s opening race.
Hickman was struggling with the middle part of the track between Craner and the Esses but was up at the sharp in around the rest of the lap so an alteration to the way he approached the middle sector saw him dip under the 1’30s barrier at the Leicestershire track for the first time.
“I have been trying to change the way I ride the bike in the middle sector because even on the first day I was top three in the first and last sectors but in sector two I was 15th,” said Hickman, speaking to bikesportnews.com at Donington.
“From the middle of Craner to the Esses we were losing a lot of time, not a little bit, a lot of time. To be honest, we haven’t changed the bike much but I have been trying to change the way I ride the bike through the middle sector to get the time back.
“It has taken time for me to get my head around but we managed to squeeze a little more out of it for qualifying. The way I was riding the turns in sector two had to be done differently from the way I would normally do it but it is obviously working, it’s a big credit to the data guys to have spotted it.”
