BSB: Hickman wins race two as Brookes crashes out

Peter Hickman took the Smiths BMW team to their debut MCE British Superbike victory at Thruxton this afternoon after Josh Brookes was denied a double win with a crash on the penultimate lap.

RAF Regular & Reserve Kawasaki’s Jake Dixon took the holeshot but a resurgent Shane Byrne, who has struggled all weekend, stormed to the front on the second lap with Dixon and Hickman close behind.

The trio would scrap it out for the lead in the early stages, before Brookes began to chase them down after a steady start. A three-way battle would soon become four, as what looked set to be a British Superbike classic started to take shape.

Hickman took to the lead just after the mid-way point and began to stretch a gap, giving Brookes enough motivation to barge past Dixon and Byrne to stop the Lincolnshireman getting away. He’d go on to take the lead and looked set to clinch a second victory of the day before crashing out of contention on the penultimate lap.

Byrne would go on to come into tyre troubles and rapidly drop through the pack before retiring, leaving Dixon to take second while the intense battle for fourth between Leon Haslam and Christian Iddon on the harder tyre became a fight for the final podium spot. It would eventually go the way of Haslam, albeit some 11 seconds behind race winner Hickman.

Jason O’Halloran was fourth for Honda Racing ahead of an impressive sixth place for Riders Motorcycles BMW’s Martin Jessopp. Lee Jackson took seventh ahead of the improving Sylvain Guintoli on the Bennetts Suzuki while James Ellison and Jakub Smrz rounded out the top ten.

Byrne now leads the championship by 19 points over Leon Haslam, who assumed second in team-mate Luke Mossey’s absence, while Hickman’s victory sees him move third overall. 

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