Peter Hickman claimed his second win of the 2022 Isle of Man TT Races on Monday evening with the Gas Monkey Garage by FHO Racing man taking another start to finish victory, this time in the RL360 Superstock race.
Riding the BMW M1000RR, Hickman put in another imperious performance around the 37.73-mile Mountain Course to take his seventh TT victory, coming home 12.7s clear of local rider Conor Cummins.
Pushed back to a 6.35pm start and cut from four laps to three, with a mandatory pit stop to be taken after the first lap, the 35-year old grabbed the lead from the outset with an opening lap of 132.217mph giving him a more than healthy 12.7s lead over Cummins’ team-mate Davey Todd.
An excellent pit stop by the team, where just fuel was taken, enabled Peter to extend his lead to 15.9s at the end of the second lap and although the combination of working his way through traffic and a 133mph+ lap from Cummins saw that gap reduced slightly on the third and final lap, Hickman had it all under control and with his quickest lap of the race, 132.274mph, he duly took the chequered flag to make it win number two for the week.
“The bike worked faultlessly from the start again and I felt really comfortable so a big thanks to the team who were brilliant,” he said afterwards. “The bike’s working so well and it’s making my life so much easier – not that it’s easy I can assure you. All the boys are fast and they’re all keeping me honest and I’m working my heart out to get the bike round as fast as possible.
“I caught Davey, John and Hutchy and knew that I had some time in hand so I followed them for a few miles which I don’t normally like to do but eventually I got by them all and got my head down. The conditions were bang on apart from the flies – there were loads of them – and it’s great to get another win so I’m happy as.”
Earlier in the day, the Louth-based rider had taken another podium, this time in the first Supersport race after finishing third behind race winner Michael Dunlop and Dean Harrison. Fourth at the end of lap one, Hickman slipped back to fifth at one stage but, part of the three-way battle for third between James Hillier, Lee Johnston and himself, a final lap of 127.604mph on the K2 Trooper Beer Triumph helped him clinch the final podium place.
“It took me too long to get going on the little bike as I didn’t get many laps in during practice. I feel comfortable on the bike but I’m not quite up to speed. We were a long way down on speed through the speed trap so we’ll have to look at everything and figure out what we can do for Wednesday. Third’s good but I want to win.”
