Top 10 finishes for FHO Racing BMW Motorrad at home at Cadwell Park
QUALIFYING
Josh Brookes: 8th
Peter Hickman: 16th
RACE 1 - 18 laps
Josh Brookes: 7th
Peter Hickman: 12th
RACE 2 - 12 laps
Josh Brookes: 7th
Peter Hickman: 15th
RACE 3 - 20 laps
Josh Brookes: 6th
Peter Hickman: 9th
Over the bank holiday weekend Bennetts British Superbike fans gathered for the annual ‘Party in the Park’, as Cadwell Park hosted the eighth round of the championship, and in front of a strong home crowd, the FHO Racing BMW Motorrad team enjoyed a solid weekend with Josh Brookes and Peter Hickman aboard the BMW M 1000 RR.
Cadwell Park is considered home for FHO Racing with Hicky and most team members based just up the road in Louth, as well as the workshop. As always, the 2.8-mile circuit delivered exhilarating racing, along with a fantastic atmosphere as the fans lined up in their thousands to enjoy a weekend of action.
The 2024 season has been somewhat of a challenge for Faye Ho’s squad, however with a lot of hard work from the crew behind the scenes, the past few rounds have seen both Josh and Peter turn a corner and back in the fight with the BMW M 1000 RR.
Across the weekend, FHO took the accolade as the ‘top BMW team’, with Josh crossing the line ahead of [Leon] Haslam in all three races. Josh, well-known for his style when jumping the Cadwell Mountain, enjoyed strong results collecting a trio of top 10 finishes with two seventh places and a sixth in the final race.
For teammate Hicky, the weekend was also a strong showing, despite some early issues and missing out on the second qualifying session, which saw him line-up for the first race in 16th. Pushing hard in all three races, Peter finished 12th and 15th, but it was the final race of the weekend where he broke into the top 10 finishing ninth.
Moving through the pack from his 12th place starting position, Pete was on a mission and by the first rotation had already broken into the top 10. Chasing down the pack in front, the FHO rider was closing the gap to group ahead and crossed the line ninth, just 0.252s from eighth place.
The FHO Racing BMW Motorrad team now has a short break between rounds, when in two weekends’ time, BSB returns to Oulton Park (13-15 September) as the season draws to a close with just three rounds remaining.
“It was awesome to see such a big crowd this weekend at Cadwell Park. Coming away with 7-7-6 and I’m actually pretty pleased with that! It’s obviously not the results we know we are capable of, but I had much stronger races and there’s certainly some positives to be had. Particularly the final race of the day, although the final results doesn’t look that impressive, I felt like I had one of my strongest races of the season so far. Mid-race we were in a battle, but I was able to make passes and pull away which shows we were much more competitive and able to maintain decent pace right to the final laps.
I have to say a big thanks to my sponsors and especially to my FHO Racing crew, it’s hard graft for little reward at the moment but we keep working for any gains we can, especially when it’s tough.”
Josh Brookes
#25
“We struggled a lot on Saturday in the rain with a lack of feeling from the rear and I couldn’t get a lap together that was fast enough. However saying that, I did just miss out on Q2, which really scuppered us moving forward, along with other riders cruising and not looking where they were going during qualifying. We were then so far back on the grid for the opening race, which really makes a difference, especially at Cadwell where it’s just so close and it’s impossible to make the time back up.
On Monday we managed to break into the 26’s finally, and we were regularly there in both races. In the Sprint Race I unfortunately nudged into Danny [Kent] and took him off track, as well as myself. Unfortunately, he went down – it was my mistake and I apologise for that and have apologised to Danny; but that’s racing, I made a very small mistake which resulted in us both across the grass. The final race I made a really good start and hung in there with Josh, Leon [Haslam] and Christian [Iddon]. In fact, for a lot of the race I felt like I was stronger than both Leon and Christian, definitely in the last half of the race I was stronger, but I just couldn’t find a place to pass. Cadwell is super difficult to make passes and I was stronger in unusual places, which made it difficult to be able to pass. To finish inside the top 10, finally, is a little bit of relief if anything, it’s been a real struggle, but we now move forward to Oulton Park where we’ll try and continue this momentum.”
Peter Hickman
#60
