TT hero Peter Hickman will jump on Jon Kirkham's Tsingtao Kawasaki after the Derby rider decided to sit out the rest of the Snetterton MCE British Superbike weekend.

It is still unsure if Kirkham will take part in the rest of the rounds, and the team will be speaking to the Englishman after the races on Sunday. The Tsingtao outfit, headed by Dave Tyson have considered a two man team for the future, but that is still being discussed.

“Peter Hickman will be riding the bike for the rest of the race weekend. A decision was made with Jon this morning that he wasn’t in the right frame of mind and position after yesterday to continue how to ride a bike, and Peter was drafted in last minute,” said team owner, Dave Tyson, speaking to bikesportnews.com.

“At the moment we will see what the weekend brings and see where Jon is afterwards. We spoke to Pete last week about running a second bike, so it wasn’t someone we haven’t spoken to before, so we have moved his plans on a bit so hopefully it will go OK, he is experienced enough so we will take it from there.

“We had a conversation with him earlier today and he wasn’t in the right frame of mind to put his leg over the bike today and he made a decision that he will sit out today and tomorrow and go from there."

Hickman told BSN.com: “It feels really good to be back here, I was on my way here anyway and luckily I had my leathers with me but it is all a bit last minute. Dave rang me up and said if I fancy having a run around this weekend.

“The second bike was an option we talked about, but we will see what the future holds. I always want to be back in Superbike, but im not expecting much this weekend as I haven’t been on a Superbike since October. So I am starting in the deep end straight into qualifying, but we will see what we can do, but I will enjoy myself.”