Peter Hickman powered to the lead in today’s first Bennetts British Superbike practice session, beating Josh Brookes and title fighter Jake Dixon to the top spot.
Dixon had been the first man to stick in a 1’25s lap this morning, but the Smith’s Racing BMW rider made a late dash to bag morning bragging rights.
While Gearlink Kawasaki’s Fraser Rogers briefly took the top spot ahead of Brookes and Jason O’Halloran in the opening minutes, the former champ pipped the rookie for top honours the very next lap and continued to drop his time to a 1’28.871.
But Honda Racing’s O’Halloran sped to the top moments later with a 1’28.199 as Richard Cooper slotted into second ahead of Brookes.
Cooper, however, wasn’t content and popped in the first 1’27 of the session before McAMS rider Taz Mackenzie went quickest with a 1’27.307.
With nearly 20 minutes completed, however, Dixon clocked the first 1’26 of the day with a 1’26.571 and then a 1’26.447 to beat FS-3 Racing’s Danny Buchan to the top spot.
Buildbase Suzuki’s Cooper pipped Dixon by less than 0.02s with just over half the session remaining, but Dixon finally hit his stride with less than five minutes remaining as he stuck in a 1’25.785 to take over P1.
But with seconds remaining, Hickman hit the top with a 1’25.717 while Brookes beat Dixon for second place by just 0.001s.
Be Wiser Ducati’s Glenn Irwin stuck in a late 1’25.802, turning just seven laps over the whole session, to lead Tyco BMW’s Christian Iddon and Cooper to fourth.
Younger Irwin brother Andrew, Mackenzie, Buchan and Ellison completed the top 10.
