Peter Hickman may have left it late but the final round of this year’s British Superbike Championship at Brands Hatch saw the FHO Racing rider put in his best performance of the year as he claimed his seventh career BSB victory.Another podium, second in Saturday’s Sprint race, made it four podiums in the final four rounds for the 35-year old with the results seeing him lift the BSB Rider’s Cup and finish as the top BMW rider.
Like fellow BMW riders Danny Buchan and Andrew Irwin, Hickman has been more prominent in recent rounds and he was in contention for the wins in all three races, clear indication of the progress him and the team have made with the M1000RR as the year’s progressed. “Better late than never,” he smiled afterwards. “I’m so happy for Faye and the whole team and it’s nice to reward them with a proper win.
Everyone was in it, and it was a nice clean race with no wet weather to overcome. I don’t have many goals, but I really wanted to win a TT race and a BSB race in the same year so it’s nice to finally do that.” You have to go back to 1990 to see when that was last achieved, Carl Fogarty winning the Formula One and Senior TT races as well as taking a Supercup win at Knockhill, and Hickman felt victory vindicated all the hard work and effort that had gone in during the year. “The boys have worked so hard all year and to actually reward them with a proper race win is the best way to end the year.
When you don’t make the Showdown, there’s not a lot to play for apart from wins and we’ve managed that. “We’ve also won the Riders Cup and ended up top BMW in the championship so we’ve ended the year well.