Hickman stands in for Reiterberger following illness

Peter Hickman will make a one-off World Superbike return standing in for the unwell Markus Reiterberger at the factory BMW squad at Donington Park.

The Bennetts British Superbike championship regular and five-time Isle of Man TT winner will substitute in for Reiterberger who has been ruled out by severe flu and high fever and has spent the night in hospital to undergo observations and tests.

With permission from Hickman’s Smiths Racing squad, the British rider heads to Donington Park this weekend as stand-in for the Shaun Muir Racing-run factory BWM WorldSBK team.

Hickman, who had been set to race in the French Superbike championship this weekend instead, is naturally relishing the opportunity and is hopeful of impressing at his home round.

“First of all, I’m sorry for Markus that he is unable to race at the weekend and I wish him a speedy recovery,” Hickman said. “At the same time, I am happy to step in and support the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team at Donington Park.

“I didn’t have to think long when I got the call from Shaun Muir. I want to thank the team for the trust and my Smiths Racing BMW team to allow me to compete in WorldSBK this weekend. And a big thanks to Dunlop UK, as I should have been racing in the French Superbike Championship for them this weekend and they enabled me to do WorldSBK instead.

“It’s quite some years ago when I did some races in this series. But I know the BMW S 1000 RR and the track at Donington Park very well, so I am confident that I can do a proper job for the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team.”

“Obviously it was very important to us to have an existing BMW rider as a replacement rider and Peter Hickman is an ideal choice for us,” team boss Muir said. “He is already riding the current bike and he agreed to join us very quickly. So we are very hopeful that he can do a good job for us at Donington Park and assist us with the development of the BMW S1000 RR.

“At the same time, I want to thank his team, Smiths Racing BMW, for releasing him for this event and hopefully we can have a good, positive race this weekend before we go to Laguna Seca.”

Hickman compete around Donington Park’s National circuit layout in BSB last in May and secured three top 10 results on his Smiths Racing BMW.