Qualifying
Josh Brookes: 20th
Peter Hickman: 13th
Race 1 – 20 laps
Josh Brookes: 16th
Peter Hickman: 10th
Race 2 – 10 laps
Josh Brookes: 4th
Peter Hickman: 13th
Race 3 – 20 laps
Josh Brookes: 8th
Peter Hickman: 12th
It’s been a fast and furious weekend for the FHO Racing BMW Motorrad team and riders Josh Brookes and Peter Hickman, who were in action for the seventh round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship at Thruxton in Hampshire.
The weekend was mixed for Faye Ho’s squad, who although experienced challenges throughout the weekend, progress was made with the BMW M 1000 RR. Friday’s combined practice sessions saw Peter head straight into Saturday’s Q2 having scored the fifth fastest time, while teammate Josh struggled to find grip and finished 21st.
Saturday’s qualifying was equally as disappointing for Josh, which saw a 20th place grid position for the opening race of the weekend, while Hicky started from 13th. Tyre management at the 2.35-mile circuit is crucial, due to the abrasive track surface and although Josh crossed the line 16th, he secured a second row starting place in fifth for Sunday’s Sprint Race, with Pete coming home tenth.
The temperature on Sunday was hot on and off the track, with Thruxton producing its usual exciting, close racing throughout the day. With a strong starting position for the Sprint Race, Josh was looking on for a podium finish and although he held third position for most of the 10-lap dash, he dropped back a place and crossed the line fourth, teammate Hicky finished 13th.
The final 20-lap race of the day saw the FHO Racing pair line up with Josh sixth and Peter 11th. Across the opening laps the duo were side by side with Josh dropping back at the start, Hicky then passed his teammate on the track and worked his way up through the pack to the leading group. Sadly, using too much tyre early on, Peter dropped back to eventually cross the line 12th, but showed solid progress to be chasing down the top-five group. Meanwhile Josh, having dropped back to 13th at one stage finished eighth.
The FHO Racing BMW Motorrad team now look forward to its home round at Cadwell Park in Lincolnshire across the August Bank Holiday weekend (24-26 August) where on Friday evening there is an official BSB test to get the ‘Party in the Park’ weekend started.
“We came into the weekend expecting it to be quite difficult; the bike doesn’t perform particularly well at Thruxton because of the long radius corners and the tyre we have to use is the harder option, which seems to disable our bike a little bit more than it seems to do the competition, so we started the weekend with some really disappointing lap times even more than we anticipated. I then had to claw my way back through the weekend trying to improve; qualifying for the opening race in 20th is quite bad by anyone’s standards I would expect. I was actually quite surprised at the end of the first race that the lap time had been enough to put me up to the second row of the grid for the second race. Race 2 we were on the softer tyre and I was actually in a podium position for a few laps, so that was quite a surprise but ended up fourth at the end, and was on the second row for the final race. However for the last race it was back to the harder tyre because of the longer race distance, I had a decent battle amongst some of the other competitors and finished eighth in the end – so not a disaster, but not really what we’d like to come away with. At this point in the year, we were hoping to be fighting for podiums; we’ve got some work to do, that’s no secret but we’re a little far from where we wanted to be. Thruxton is a difficult circuit for us, so we have to accept that and move onto Cadwell Park for the next round.”
Josh Brookes #25
“It’s been a more positive weekend; it’s still not exactly where we want to be with the FHO Racing BMW, don’t get me wrong, but we struggled a little bit here with the with the extra hard tyres in particular. Qualifying does goes a long way and I really struggled to just get one good lap out in qualifying, I’ve never been a qualifying sort of rider and it really hampers us at the minute with the field being so tight; it makes it ultra difficult to come through the pack. So not being able to qualify well is really hindering us, which was shown by Josh in the second race – respectfully, he was nowhere in the first race, but got a good lap time and finished up there in fourth in race two, and that’s simply because he started at the front. I managed to pull up through a little bit in the last race up to sixth from 12th, which was ok-ish. We made some changes to the BMW which did improve it, but we used too much tyre in the race. Sometimes you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t and that’s kind of how our weekend’s been a little bit. I’m still not feeling 100% in myself, but we’re not too far away now, and definitely a lot more in the mix; I’m actually racing now, which is a bonus so it’s now onwards and upwards and onto our home race Cadwell Park.”
Peter Hickman #60
“Thruxton was always going to be a difficult round for the team; we arrived knowing this as last year was a disaster in terms of the results, but this year Josh and Peter improved throughout the weekend and they were both in the mix across the races respectively, with Josh looking hopeful for a podium in the Sprint Race. Everyone is working so hard to make improvements and sometimes these things take time, so a huge thank you to the team, Josh and Peter for all their hard work and perseverance. We as a team now look forward to our home race at Cadwell Park and cannot wait to see everyone out in force over the Bank Holiday Weekend.”
Faye Ho Team Principal
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