The Monster Energy by FHO Racing BMW Motorrad team finished second in a sensational RL360 Superstock TT Race 1 this afternoon, with Peter Hickman taking the runner-up spot just 2.2 seconds behind Davey Todd, with teammate Josh Brookes crossing the line in 10th place.
The three-lap race got underway at 12.15pm, and by Glen Helen on the opening lap Peter was only a tenth of a second back in third place. By Ballaugh Hicky had moved into second place and was the fastest between the two sectors aboard his BMW M 1000 RR Superstock machine.
At the Bungalow there was just 0.08 seconds between Todd and Hicky with the pair creating a gap ahead of the chasing pack. Coming into the compulsory pit stop at the end of the first lap, the FHO rider was 1.7s off the lead.
The next two laps of the 37.73-mile Mountain Course were a nail-biting affair, with Peter hot on Todd’s heels and on the final lap at Ballaugh Hicky had closed the gap to within half a second.
On the final run to Ramsey, Todd dug deep taking a few seconds back from Hicky, but it was at the Bungalow where the pair set almost identical sector times from Ramsey Hairpin.
With the race anyone’s at this point it was all down to the final moments, but Hicky caught James Hillier across the Mountain and struggled to get past quickly and safely, which gave Todd the advantage and he took the win ahead of Hicky by 2.2 seconds, with Faye Ho’s rider setting the fastest lap of the race (135.140mph). Today’s second-place finish marks Peter’s 30 podium at the Isle of Man TT Races.
For teammate Josh it was a frustrating race after a few issues hampered his progress. Coming into the pit stop Josh was seventh, where he’d started on the road, but lost 55 seconds in the pit stop due to an issue with the quick release on the fuel tank.
Losing valuable time in the pits Josh lost places and dropped back to 17th. Pushing hard to make up places, but having lost that initial valuable time, Josh crossed the line 10th.
The Monster Energy by FHO Racing BMW Motorrad team will be back in action tomorrow with the second Superstock TT race and the Senior TT on Saturday (8 June).
“Today’s race was frustrating to be honest, but that’s how it goes sometimes. The pit stop cost me a lot of time, but I wasn’t going as quick as I would have liked to anyway, so I didn’t lose positions in the race purely because of the pit stop, I just couldn’t go as fast as I’d anticipated, maybe the track conditions were a bit off, but I can’t be sure. Something was off today we weren’t as fast as we have been, so we’ve got to look into things overnight and see what we can do to improve the pace for tomorrow’s race.”
Josh Brookes
#7
“The BMW worked well in the race and I did feel really good, but we didn’t have enough for Davey today, but that’s the way it goes sometimes. We’ve won five Superstock races in a row and we’ve finally been beaten, the more that was going to go on for, the more likely it was that we would be beaten. However, it was a BMW who beat us and it’s great for Davey to get his first win and also for the event as a whole that we have a new winner. We’ve got another chance tomorrow for the second Superstock race, so we’ll see if we can take it to them then.”
Peter Hickman
#10
