Peter Hickman became the sixth different race winner of the 2021 Bennetts British Superbike Championship season, claiming FHO Racing BMW an emphatic first race win in the series in front of a rapturous home crowd at Cadwell Park.
At the start, Jason O’Halloran hit the front of the pack, narrowly moving down the inside of Glenn Irwin with Hickman holding third. However, by the time the pack had reached Chris Curve, Glenn Irwin had taken the lead for Honda Racing.
Irwin was trying to break the field; edging out an initial gap of 0.8s over the opening laps, but behind Hickman had made a decisive move on O’Halloran to move into second.
By the seventh lap Hickman had reeled Irwin back in and the advantage had vanished. Irwin made a small mistake to run slightly wide and Hickman didn’t need an invitation as he dived through to take the lead.
Hickman then unleashed a series of fast laps, breaking the lap record with a time of 1m:26.350s, to gap O’Halloran and Irwin, before taking the chequered flag in front of an ecstatic crowd.
However, the podium fight wasn’t over and whilst O’Halloran had moved into second, Irwin was soon under pressure from Tommy Bridewell.
The Oxford Products Racing Ducati rider had left it to the final laps to carve his way through, taking no prisoners to grab the final podium place on the penultimate lap to push Irwin into fourth.
Christian Iddon was able to get to the front of the next pack, moving ahead of Lee Jackson and Andrew Irwin in the closing five laps.
Ryan Vickers, who set the fastest ever lap of Cadwell Park yesterday, was eighth as he bounced back from a high-speed crash in qualifying.
Rory Skinner and Josh Brookes completed the top ten ahead of tomorrow’s two races.
Bennetts British Superbike Championship, Cadwell Park, BikeSocial Race 1:
- Peter Hickman (FHO Racing BMW)
- Jason O’Halloran (McAMS Yamaha) +2.080s
- Tommy Bridewell (Oxford Products Racing Ducati) +3.729s
- Glenn Irwin (Honda Racing) +4.348s
- Christian Iddon (VisionTrack Ducati) +4.529s
- Lee Jackson (FS-3 Racing Kawasaki) +4.617s
- Andrew Irwin (SYNETIQ BMW) +5.253s
- Ryan Vickers (RAF Regular & Reserve Kawasaki) +7.120s
- Rory Skinner (FS-3 Racing Kawasaki) +8.084s
- Josh Brookes (VisionTrack Ducati) +9.729s
Bennetts British Superbike Championship standings after Cadwell Park Race 1:
- Jason O’Halloran (McAMS Yamaha) 297
- Tarran Mackenzie (McAMS Yamaha) 223
- Christian Iddon (VisionTrack Ducati) 214
- Tommy Bridewell (Oxford Products Racing Ducati) 173
- Danny Buchan (SYNETIQ BMW) 165
- Peter Hickman (FHO Racing BMW) 155
- Glenn Irwin (Honda Racing) 134
- Bradley Ray (Rich Energy OMG Racing BMW) 115
Peter Hickman – FHO Racing BMW
BikeSocial Race 1 winner
“It is mega to win here! We have had a bad run of luck and that race was perfect. I knew I had the pace for the race, as the FHO Racing BMW has been fantastic.
“It was pretty much a perfect race in the end. I saw Jason and Glenn making some moves to start with but I felt I had more pace than they did, so I just settled in at the start.
“I managed to pull a clean move on Jason at Mansfield, which is always tricky there! I then needed to get Glenn and fortunately, he made a mistake, so I was able to take advantage at Barn and that gave me what I needed.
“This is such a tough track, so it feels even better to win! I had to keep my concentration and not make any mistakes, so to be leading until the chequered flag felt like an eternity.
“I am so happy for Faye, and to get our first win here for the team at their home round, was great. It is only our first season, and with all these fans all the way around the circuit, it made it even more special. It has been an awesome day.”
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