RAF Reserves BMW’s Peter Hickman hadn’t ridden his S1000RR properly before he rolled down pitlane at Donington on Saturday morning but two days later he found himself fifth in the MCE British Superbike championship chase with fourth and fifth places.

Hickman revealed that he gave team boss Lee Hardy an ultimatum in the winter to change manufacturers or he would jump ship and it has proven the right thing to do so far.

“Pleased would be a slight understatement. I am well happy. We rolled the bike out of the box on Saturday morning without much of an idea of where to go and here we are top BMW and fifth in the championship. I don’t really know how that has happened,’ said Hickman, speaking to bikesportnews.com

“It’s a bit out of the blue and a surprise to us as much as it is everyone else. We did not testing at all, I am normally a rider that takes a while to get going so to be able to roll out in fifth and fourth is mega. All credit to Lee, Alec and the team, they have put a lot of hours in and it’s great to be able to give them the results back at the first round.

“None of us expected this. It’s a massive thing to change manufacturers and it was something I was pushing for. I kind of gave them an ultimatum of change manufacturer or I am not riding, and fair play they stuck their necks out and did it.”

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