BSB: Hickman: 'I'm really feeling it this year'

Last season, Peter Hickman enjoyed his strongest Bennetts British Superbike campaign to date, securing a place in the Showdown for the first time and going on to secure fourth overall for the Smiths BMW team.

Remaining with the same team for 2018 presents the 30-year-old with the continuity he hasn’t had in recent years as he looks to further build on that success. 

“I’m really feeling it this year,” he told MCN. “I’m in a position where I’m staying with the same team, we have the same bike and I’ve got the same people around me and it’s the first time I’ve really done that racing at this level.

“The biggest benefit of that is that we can continue the development we made last year, when we took some real big jumps. Mid-season we went from riding around in sixth to leading races and challenging at the front, so now we’re looking for the next step to be able to do that consistently and put up a strong challenge. 

“Last year I got in the Showdown for the first time and finished fourth, this year the aim is to do better but first we have to secure that Showdown spot.”

Hickman also enjoyed his strongest ever season on the roads in 2017, finishing on the podium in all five races he started at last year’s Isle of Man TT, but the Lincolnshire ace insists BSB is still his number one priority.

“BSB is still the priority for me, in testing we only had the BSB bike out as that’s what I’ve done every year. We’ll look at the roads bikes when we get back to the UK, of course that is important too, but at the minute we are focusing on getting ready for a real attack in BSB and improving on what we achieved last year.”

For an extensive 2018 Bennetts British Superbike Championship season preview, including exclusive interviews, tech features and the Bennetts BSB grid predicting their 2018 #ShowdownSix, pick up this week’s MCN.