Peter Hickman declared himself satisfied with his night’s work after Monday’s practice session at the Isle of Man TT Races, the first time the 1000cc big bikes had taken to the Mountain Course this week.
The Smiths Racing BMW rider opened up with a lap of 129mph on his Superbike, good enough for third quickest on the night, but went quicker on his Superstock mount with his lap of 130.219mph not only enabling him to top the class leaderboard, but also making him one of three riders to break the 130mph.
“I’m really happy with how the night went,” Hickman told bikesportnews.com. “The Superbike was hard to ride but they always are the very first lap you do on them around here and I did have a few little issues which meant I rolled off quite a bit, so I was more than happy with a 129mph standing start lap.
“The Superstock bike was mint and it’s exactly the same as what we ran throughout 2017 and at the North West 200 so I’m reaping the benefits of being on the same bike and with the same team for a second successive year, which is the first time I’ve had that here at the TT. There’s a few changes I can make but only little tweaks here and there.
“The course is still a bit dusty and there’s a few bits of new tarmac around the place but the course is otherwise in great shape and I’ve already got ten laps under my belt so we’re way ahead of where we were this time last year. The biggest problem I’ve encountered so far is the flies - they’re horrendous!
“I had two tear-offs fitted last night and needed to take one off at Glen Helen on my first lap but that’s only nine miles into the lap so I had to keep telling myself to hold on until Ramsey. I’ve fitted three tear-offs for tonight’s session and that’s something I’ve never had to do before.”