Hickman eighth in second Oulton BSB race

Quay Garage rider Peter Hickman topped another solid weekend aboard the Tyco Honda by finishing eighth in the second race at Oulton Park on Bank Holiday Monday in the second round of the MCE British Superbike Championship.Hickman qualified 13th and finished in 13th spot in race one after a bad start. He also fluffed the start in race two but fought his way through to eighth, running the same lap times as the riders in front of him.Hickman said: “My bike is absolutely mega. It’s wicked. I love it. We made steady progress through practice and qualifying, working on the electronics package and improving the chassis.“I made a mistake on my last lap in final qualifying and ran wide at Druids which put me a bit further back on the grid than I wanted. My starts didn’t help either, but in the second race I was only 0.3s off the front men, even at the end of the race when the tyre grip was way down. Overall I’m well happy and it’s something positive to build on for Croft on May 15.Patric Muff finished fourth in BSB Evo in both races on his Tyco Honda and now sits third in the championship. It was an impressive performance for the Swiss rider on his debut at what is regarded as BSB’s most technically demanding race circuit.Muff achieved his self-imposed target of a 1:38s lap in the second race of the day and said: “I’m really pleased with my progress so far. I had a little crash on Sunday and hurt my shoulder but it was okay in the races.“Oulton is incredible. I’ve never raced on a track that has so many blind crests and undulations. It’s so hard to keep the front wheel on the ground over all the bumps and jumps - but it’s so much fun.“I’m loving the BSB tracks and can’t wait to get to Croft and see what challenges that will present us!”The team’s other rider, Tommy Bridewell was a non-starter at Oulton on Monday. He crashed his Tyco Honda in free practice on Saturday and his bike was too badly damaged for the team to rebuild at the circuit.Quay Garage team owner Ian Woollacott said: “It’s unfortunate but with two extensive crashes in two weekends we were left with no option but to withdraw Tommy from the meeting. Saturday’s crash damage broke the top fork yoke, swing-arm and shock absorber. All of these were brand new parts we had fitted following his Brands crash and the simple fact is, the damage was so extensive that it was impossible to rebuild the bike at the circuit.”Woollacott, however, was delighted with the performance of his other two riders and said: “I’m really impressed with the way Peter is working methodically towards getting the bike to suit his riding style. His performance in the second race showed he has the ability to run the lap times. And with better starts I think we’re going to see him knocking on the door of the top six each weekend.“Patric also did a great job this weekend.  Oulton is such a demanding circuit so considering he had never even seen the place until Saturday morning’s practice, he did a really good job and is now third overall in the BSB Evo championship.”

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