Peter Hickman (Smiths Racing BMW) won a two-lap Superbike race at the Ulster Grand Prix on Saturday afternoon after the race – intended to be held over seven laps – was stopped twice, firstly for a crash involving Davey Todd and secondly for inclement weather.
The race had initially been halted on the second lap after Todd crashed at Deers Leap, sustaining suspected fractures, but after a short delay, it got restarted with the intention of it running over the full race distance of seven laps once more.
However, it was clear that the forecasted bad weather was closing in particularly on the top part of the circuit through Wheelers, Tournagrough and the Lindsay Hairpin where visibility was being significantly affected.
The race got underway in the dry and it was Conor Cummins who led at the end of the opening lap by 0.5s from Hickman, Dean Harrison – who equalled the fastest ever speed trap time with a speed of 200.4mph – and David Johnson with the quartet covered by just 1.3s but positions changed during the course of the second lap as worsening weather conditions came into play.
Manxman Cummins slid off at the hairpin after a coming together with Harrison and the latter then had to pull in at the end of the lap due to a broken foot peg caused in the incident but although the riders continued onto their third lap, the red flag came out once more as the weather worsened.
After some deliberation, the result was declared at the end of the two laps and that saw Hickman awarded the win with Lee Johnston (Honda Racing) and Johnson (Tyco BMW) completing the podium in second and third.
Paul Jordan (Dafabet Devitt Racing Kawasaki) finished in fourth ahead of Brian McCormack (TAG Racing BMW), Sam West (PRL BMW), Dominic Herbertson (Dafabet Devitt Racing Kawasaki), Mike Booth (Fast Bikes Kawasaki), Forest Dunn (Kawasaki) and David Jackson (BMW).
