Victory for Hickman and Smiths at NW200
Peter Hickman clinched both his and the Smiths Racing BMW team’s first ever International North West 200 victory when he came out on top of a thrilling Superstock race on Thursday evening which he followed up with a runner-up place in Saturday's second race.
Hickman’s win came after a titanic three-rider battle during the opening six-lap race around the Causeway Coast track which saw the Lincoln rider dicing with fellow BMW riders Alastair Seeley and Michael Dunlop for the entire race distance.
It was Hickman and Seeley that held first and second for the majority of the race and although Seeley, the record race winner at the closed roads track in Northern Ireland, looked like he’d done enough to get the win, Peter had other ideas and a late braking manoeuvre at the Juniper Chicane on the final lap saw him get the verdict by just over half a second.
Today’s race, which again saw perfect conditions all around the 8.9-mile circuit, followed a similar pattern with the same riders battling for supremacy. At one time, just two seconds covered the first eight riders but in the closing two laps, it was Hickman and Seeley that again looked the most likely to succeed on their respective BMW S1000RRs.
Along with Dean Harrison, the duo both took turns to lead and although Peter grabbed the lead at the Metropole on the final lap and led all along the coast road, Seeley did what Peter had done to him on Thursday at Juniper to take the win with the Smiths BMW rider having to settle for second this time, albeit just 0.186 seconds adrift.
The 31 year old was also out in both of today’s seven-lap Superbike races for the Gloucester-based team, but it was a case of what might have been as rear tyre problems forced him to retire from the leading pack in the first encounter and then a punctured radiator pipe, caused from a stone flicking up from the rider in front of him, in the second race.
Unfortunately, a controversial decision by the organisers meant that he was unable to start either of the two Supersport races on the Smiths Racing Trooper Beer Triumph with only four and a half of the designated qualifying laps completed, which was a disappointment for all concerned.
