Peter Hickman bounced back to top form with two fifth places on the Quay Garage Tyco Honda at Cadwell Park in the ninth round of the MCE British Superbike championship on August Bank Holiday.

Hickman got his weekend off to a positive start with eighth place in Sunday’s extra race postponed from Oulton Park. Better still he had also qualified third for Monday’s two races and following two good starts was able to run the pace of the fast men up front all weekend.

He said: “I’m really happy with the weekend. We qualified well and it was a really fast pace in both of Monday’s races. We were running 1:27s lap times all race – even on the last lap.

“In Monday’s first race Josh Brookes held me up a bit and started to gap me but then I chased him down and was back with him. He was so late on the brake though which made it impossible to pass but I’ve got to say I was really happy with my performance.

“In the second of Monday’s races, I ran with the leaders throughout the entire 15 laps  and it was much the same story – I had the pace to do the lap times but I didn’t quite have enough to put a move on any of them.”

Hickman’s team-mate Patric Muff didn’t have such a good time on his first full race meeting at the demanding Cadwell circuit. He finished seventh in the Evo class in all three races.

Muff said: “It’s not been a good weekend in terms of results but I can’t be too disappointed because this has to be one of the most difficult tracks that I’ve ever raced on.”

Team owner Ian Woollacott added: “We’re delighted with Peter’s performance this weekend. He was on the pace from the very start and in the race was able to run with the leading pack in both of Sunday’s races. Now we’re hoping he can carry that momentum into the next round at Donington Park in two weeks time.

“We always expected that Patric would find the Cadwell Park circuit difficult to learn and while it’s disappointing that he wasn’t able to push further up the results, he’s already looking forward to coming back here next year.”