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2018 Ulster GP: Hickman bags Supersport race two win

Peter Hickman took a dominant win in the opening Supersport race at Saturday’s Ulster Grand Prix when he led from start to finish on the Trooper Beer by Smiths Racing Triumph to defeat the Padgetts Honda duo of Lee Johnston and Conor Cummins by 7.9s as Dean Harrison retired.

“I didn’t make the greatest of starts but I soon got up to third and I had a bit more pace than Dean (Harrison) and Adam (McLean) and managed to get them both at the same time,” Hickman said afterwards.

“It’s hard to make a break around here but I kept my head down, kept hitting my markers and it was nice to be in the lead at the end of each lap. The Supersport isn’t really my class but that’s three wins around here now and the bike was working really well.”

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It was McLean who led off the line but Hickman soon moved to the front and by the end of the lap, his advantage over Harrison was already 0.9s with McLean, Johnston and Cummins close behind. It was equally close for sixth as Michael Sweeney, Paul Jordan and Davey Todd flashed across the line nose to tail.

Hickman’s lead remained 0.9s at the end of the second lap, when Johnston was the quicker, but third time around, his lap of 128.725mph saw the gap increase to over a second for the first time.

On his fourth lap, he went quicker still at 128.838mph, which was just 0.2s outside the lap record and his lead shot up to four seconds as Harrison pulled into the pits to retire. Johnston was now up to second from Cummins but they exchanged places for the remainder of the race as McLean kept a watching brief in fourth.

The scrap for fifth continued to rage and there was an even bigger battle for eighth with no less than six riders involved including Dan Cooper and Joey Thompson.

At the head of the field, Hickman continued to pull away and he swept to his fifth Ulster GP victory with Johnston finally getting the better of Cummins for third with McLean just behind in fourth. Sweeney got the better of Jordan for fifth as Todd went out on the penultimate lap.

Further back, Cooper came out on top of the six-rider battle for seventh with Thompson, Dominic Herbertson and Christian Elkin rounding out the top ten.

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