EXCLUSIVE: Peter Hickman points out key to road racing ahead of North West 200

For riders and teams competing in both the British Superbike Championship and in road racing, such as 8Ten Racing and Peter Hickman, the period from the beginning of May until beginning of June is the busiest of the year.

With the opening BSB round of the season at Oulton Park finishing on Monday, and practice for the North West 200 beginning on Wednesday, Hickman’s 8Ten Racing team was one of a few BSB squads leaving Oulton Park in a hurry to catch the ferry to Northern Ireland.

“Straight to the North West 200 tonight [Monday night], the team’s packing up as fast as possible to get there for the boat,” Hickman told Crash.net at the Oulton Park BSB a few minutes after the cancellation of the third and final BSB race of the weekend had been confirmed.

“Looking forward to it, obviously, the road racing’s always good fun, it’s a massive part of our calendar, our year, and me and Davey [Todd] are obviously looking to try and win as many races as possible.”

Hickman’s targets remain exactly that, winning races, on the roads, in spite of delays in getting his Superbike ready for this season following a chaotic winter that saw him leave FHO Racing and form the new 8Ten team with teammate Davey Todd.

“Road racing is a bit different,” Hickman explained when asked if his expectations could be to win considering the lack of time he’s had on this year’s Superbike-spec BMW M1000 RR, which he rode for the first time in BSB practice last Saturday (3 May).

“It’s not really down to bike setup so much, it’s more about reliability and that sort of stuff.

“The bike’s already feeling in a good place. I did a 1:34.3 in that race and I did quite a lot of low-1:34s, probably the best race pace I’ve had at Oulton Park for quite a while, actually.

“So, overall, I’m in a pretty good spot – yes, we’ve got more to do, and we made more changes for the last race, which obviously we’ve not had chance to try, but overall we’re in a pretty good spot.”