Hickman claims eighth at Snetterton, despite two British Superbike crashes

He did, however, secure an eighth-place finish in the second race on Sunday in round five of the championship to claim a further eight championship points towards his quest for a shootout position towards the end of the season.

Hicky, from WLouth, made it through the first two qualifying sessions with ease recording third in the first one and eighth in the second.

Because of poor weather conditions in the previous rounds, the new Superpole was unable to be implemented, but it was fine and dry at Snetterton and the riders were able to take to the track in the final session to do one flying lap alone on the track.

He was apprehensive as he had never done this before, but he sailed through, posting a lap of 1m 49.386s, which put him onto the second row for the start of race one on Sunday.

As the first race began, Hicky took up sixth position and was poised to move further ahead on lap four but the rider ahead faltered and Hicky highsided as he tried to avoid the crash.

He was taken to the medical centre for a check up but was pronounced fit to take part in the second race later in the day.

Starting race two from the second row, Hickman didn’t get the best of starts and was running in seventh place until he overtook Luke Mossey on lap four.

He then became embroiled in a battle for position with Glenn Irwin, who finally made his move stick on lap eight relegating Hicky back to seventh.

He fell back into the clutches of Christian Iddon and remained circulating in eighth place until lap 13 when the red flag came out to halt the race because of oil on the track.

Unfortunately, Hicky had crashed on the oil before he had a chance to stop but luckily as it was after the red flag his result stood and he was able to claim the eight championship points.

Having had two crashes through no fault of his own, Peter Hickman said: “Today’s not been the best.

“The weekend was shaping up really well and we were consistently running top five pace and I honestly think we could have been challenging for the podium.

“Unfortunately, in that opening race Glenn had a problem right in front of me and down we went.

“In that second outing our setting just wasn’t right and I couldn’t quite manage the same pace, but it’s still good to get some points on the board – particularly as just as the flag came out, I hit the oil and crashed.”

Hickman has currently slipped down to ninth.

The next round is at Thuxton on July 24.