Sunday

This weekend the FHO Racing BMW Motorrad team are in action at Cheshire’s Oulton Park circuit for the first UK round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship.

With all practice sessions completed yesterday, Josh Brookes and Peter Hickman had a day of Qualifying, as well as the first race of the weekend onboard their BMW M 1000 RR machines, with glorious sunshine at the 2.6-mile track.

Finishing in the top-12 yesterday, ‘Hicky’ had secured a spot in the afternoon’s Q2, but his all-important qualifying session was cut short after a huge crash at Brittens brought out the red flags, where without setting a time he lined up on the grid 15th.

Peter’s FHO teammate Josh was outside of the Q2 cutoff after practice. Topping the times in Q1, Josh advanced to Q2 where he finished ninth and lined up for the first race of the weekend on the third row of the grid.

Ahead of the 18-lap race, Faye Ho’s squad pulled together to get Pete’s crash-damaged BMW M 1000 RR ready for the race, where at 16.15 he rolled out into pit lane to take his spot on the grid. Making up places across the 18 laps, Pete crossed the line 13th, with teammate Josh ahead in ninth place.

Josh Brookes

“I was a bit disappointed with first practice yesterday, we’d had a couple of days testing before the event and during the test, I thought we were fairly competitive and felt the times where close. But it seemed in practice everyone else found more time and I couldn’t. In qualifying we made some changes and I made it through Q1 into Q2, I then had a fairly decent time and made it to ninth on the third row for the race. Usually that wouldn’t be a great position but from where I was after practice I guess that was a big improvement. In the race I didn’t get a great start but I don’t think that changed the result too much, I rode the best race I could and again it’s not a result you’d be super-pleased with but I have to accept the position we’re in at the moment, and aim improve again tomorrow.”

Peter Hickman

“It’s been one of those weekends and it’s not going our way at the minute to be honest, but it’s the way it goes sometimes. It’s really frustrating as I feel really good on the bike and fast, which I have done since we got here on Wednesday. I had a big crash on Thursday morning at turn one, which is probably one of the worst places to crash here at Oulton Park and it’s put us on the back foot a little bit. Yesterday I nearly did my fastest-ever time here, even though I have a small broken bone in my hand, I was quite happy and content. Then in qualifying, I don’t know, I didn’t do anything wrong or different, for some reason I lost the front. It looked like a much bigger crash than it was, I hit the big foam wall and it looked a lot more spectacular that it was – I was fine, just really annoyed more than anything, and that yet again put us on the back foot as I started 15th.”

Monday

The FHO Racing BMW Motorrad team is coming away from the second round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship with three top ten finishes after Josh Brookes made a step forward with his BMW M 1000 RR at Oulton Park.

Following on from his ninth place in yesterday’s opening race, Josh finished seventh in today’s 12-lap Sprint race and eighth in the final race of the weekend. With positive progress made since the opening round in Spain, there are just a few areas of fine tuning needed to make further progress this season.

Meanwhile Peter Hickman has a disastrous weekend at the 2.6-mile Cheshire track, where he placed 15^th in the Sprint race and crashed out, unhurt, of the final race on the ninth lap.

In the ABK 0% Beer BMW Motorrad F 900 R Cup there was an incident on the warm-up lap where Kate Walker and Jamie Hanks-Elliott were involved. Kate sustained a head injury resulting in a period of unconsciousness. She was treated at the Medical Centre before being transferred by Air Ambulance to Aintree Hospital for ongoing assessment and treatment. Katie has had a brain scan and at this time is stable and does not require an operation. She is being kept in Aintree Hospital for close observation. Jamie Hanks-Elliott sustained a soft tissue injury to her left leg and will be reviewed to race prior to the next round.

The FHO Racing BMW Motorrad team will now regroup ahead of the next round of the championship, which takes place at Donington Park on 17-19 May.

Josh Brookes

“The weekend hasn’t been too bad, the final race result wasn’t as good as our earlier result, but I feel like the overall was strong and I improved my average time throughout the race. The lap times were a little slower than the previous race as no one met their lap times, but I think starting a few places back on the grid was harmful to the progress we could have made. Leon [Haslam] got a really good start and I was looking to see where he was, and if I could have got away at the start in that position I could have stayed at the front, but starting a bit further back – even when you’re doing the same lap times as the guys ahead of you – makes it difficult to find anything to go quicker. I feel like it’s a bit of a factor of the tyres this year, they’re harder and produce a little less grip and I feel it makes it hard for tactical racing as you’re stuck with what you’ve got. We need to work harder on our package and make it stronger, our qualifying lap time is really critical; I need to get better starts. Then if we have a better lap time there, then my lap time for the race will be stronger and I can fight for the front positions.”

Peter Hickman

“This weekend has not been our weekend, nor a weekend to really shout about. It’s such a shame as we all came into this round with high spirits and hoping for a strong performance, but it’s just not worked out for us. Our highest result of the weekend was 13th in yesterday’s race, we were then 15th and I crashed out running in 15th place in the final race. Round 2 is definately one to put behind us, we’ll regroup and come back stronger for the third round at Donington Park in a few weeks time.”

Faye Ho

“Our weekend at Oulton Park has been mixed, that’s for sure! Josh has made great progress throughout and we’ve come away with three top ten finishes, so if we can keep progressing and moving forward then I’m sure it won’t be long until we’re back in the front group. With Pete, it’s just not been his weekend and that’s sometimes how it goes, we have to learn from it and move forward together. I’d like to wish all the riders involved in the F 900 R Cup incident earlier a speedy recovery and especially to our girls Kate and Jamie who were involved. Also thank you to the BSB medical team and the marshals.”