MOTORCYCLING: '˜Hicky' enjoys good weekend at Cadwell Park

Having enjoyed a successful test at the Cadwell Park circuit last week, Hicky and the JG Speedfit team were confident of a strong showing this weekend.

During the three-stage qualifying Hicky was able to move comfortably through the opening session, but narrowly missed out on progressing through to the final session by just 0.069s and ended up in 10th place on the starting grid for Monday’s opening race.

Disappointed not to progress through to the final session, Hickman said: “It’s been a tough weekend actually, I just can’t seem to get the lap time I want.

“It’s taken until qualifying to actually lap faster than I did in testing here last week but I was able to set my personal best around Cadwell Park, but the pace is so fast it just wasn’t enough to get through to Q3.”

As the first race got underway, Hickman was up to ninth position and on lap eight he was able to move up to eighth.

But Glenn Irwin pushed him back a place on lap 12 where he stayed until lap 15 when he overtook Richard Cooper and then Luke Mossey to snatch seventh place which he held to the flag.

In the second encounter, Hickman got a fantastic start from the third row to take up seventh position on the opening lap.

The safety car came out to clear a crash and when it left the track on lap four Hicky was quick to take advantage and move to sixth place.

He was on a roll and overtook Bridewell to fifth place on lap six and then took Dan Linfoot at Park Corner on lap 11.

Despite being hassled by Linfoot, Bridewell and Irwin in the latter stages he hung on to cross the finish line in fourth place, ensuring he significantly reduced his gap to the Showdown top six ahead of the triple header at Oulton in two weeks.

Having set his fastest ever lap around Cadwell, and claiming a well-deserved fourth, Hickman commented: “In the end, it’s been a great day! I was quite happy with race one.

“I felt we had the pace to be fourth, but things just didn’t quite go to plan during the race, but I knew we could have a better showing in the second outing.

“Being a row further forward certainly made things easier and I made a really good start, I actually almost ran into the back of Bridewell into turn one but after that I got my head down and was able to make some really big moves which paid off.

“It’s where we should have been all weekend but we’ve closed the deficit to the top six to just 12 points so it’s all to play for at Oulton.”

The next round is at Oulton Park in Cheshire over the weekend of September 8-9.