Peter Hickman and the Gas Monkey Garage by FHO Racing team completed a hat-trick of wins at the 2022 Isle of Man TT Races on Saturday with victory in the Blue Riband Senior race.
Riding the BMW M1000RR, Hickman led from start to finish once more to win by 16.918s from Dean Harrison with the victory adding to his Superbike, Superstock and Supertwin success from earlier in the week.
The four wins in the week meant Hickman became just the fourth rider to achieve the feat after Phillip McCallen, Ian Hutchinson and Michael Dunlop. It was his ninth TT win and 20th podium in total.
Originally scheduled to take place on Friday afternoon, the race was pushed back to an 11am start on Saturday and although windy conditions over the Mountain presented a major challenge, the race went ahead on time and over the full six laps with a first lap speed of 132.381mph giving Peter a lead over Harrison of 8.362s.
Second time around, Peter upped his pace to 132.627mph, which proved to be the fastest lap of the race, and that, in turn, helped increased his advantage over his Kawasaki rival to 14.6s. A slightly longer pit stop to take on the necessary amount of fuel saw the gap come down initially on lap three but by the end of the lap, half race distance, it was back up to 18.6s.
With the wind continuing to cause problems over the Mountain, speeds were slightly reduced in the second half of the race but, despite experiencing issues with his brakes, two more 130mph+ laps enabled 35-year old Hickman to control proceedings from the front and duly give the team their third win of the week from three starts.
The four wins, combined with second and third place finishes in the two Supersport encounters saw him win the Joey Dunlop TT Championship with a total of 111 points, 22 clear of Harrison, the fourth time he’s won the awardis .
“To win another Senior TT is epic and I’ve got to say a massive thanks to the team who’ve done a fantastic job all fortnight,” he said afterwards. “I had a couple of issues in the race, the main one being the brake pads being repeatedly knocked back which I meant I had to brake a bit earlier than normal in places, pumping the brake a few times as well.”
“The bike wasn’t quite running as I would have liked either so I just focused on managing the gap to Dean. Conditions weren’t brilliant with the strong winds and whilst the first two laps weren’t too bad, it definitely picked up as the race wore on.”
“A six-lap Senior race was what we all wanted though and we managed to get the job done so I couldn’t be happier. It’s awesome to give the team three wins out of three at their first TT and we couldn’t have asked for any more.”
Team owner Faye Ho was equally delighted with the success, the three wins coming at her very first year with the team at the event.
“To take three wins in a week from three starts in our very first year at the TT is amazing,” she smiled. “I’m so, so proud of the team and everyone worked so hard whilst Peter rode fantastically well throughout the fortnight.”
“We came here with no expectations at all and the simple aim was to try our best and enjoy ourselves, which we most certainly did. It’s been a superb week of racing for the team and a dream come true to win the races we’ve won.”
