Peter Hickman underlined his status as the rider to beat on big bike machinery at the 2022 Isle of Man TT as he powered to his second victory of race week in the Superstock category.
A winner already this week following victory on the ‘full-fat’ Gas Monkey FHO BMW M 1000 RR in Saturday’s Superbike TT, Hickman was similarly in control on the Superstock-spec version of the machine.
Indeed, while the relative parity of the stock machines promised a much closer race over a shortened 3-lap distance, victory was put out of all but Hickman’s reach mid-way around the opening revolution as he quickly stretched his advantage to 7.3secs at Ramsey.
Pulling the gap out to 11secs by Bungalow, Hickman was comfortably in charge by the time he’d returned to track for his one and only pit-stop.
With the benefit of the margin behind him, Hickman managed the pace thereafter and while he might have broken the lap record on the final revolution had he not come up against a pack of traffic, he was still a clear 12.7secs winner.
It meant there was an element of ‘what could have been’ for Conor Cummins, who produced a superb performance during the closing stages to haul himself back into podium contention coming into the final lap before overhauling his Milenco by Padgetts Honda team-mate Davey Todd before the finish.
Such was his electric pace, Cummins was instead the man with the record in his name thanks to 133.116mph speed at the line, a final lap effort some six seconds faster than Hickman’s. While his long wait for a maiden win goes on, the result marks his 11th trip to the TT podium since 2006.
On a memorable evening for Clive Padgetts, Todd completed the rostrum for his first ever TT podium. The youngster - competing in only his third TT - had looked a strong bet for a podium in Saturday’s Superbike TT but for a dramatic rear-tyre blow putting him out of the race.
However, after chasing Hickman initially, though Todd couldn’t repel his team-mate, he had enough in hand to hold off Dean Harrison and Michael Dunlop, who couldn’t match their podiums in the Superbike TT and Supersport TT as they trailed home in fourth and fifth.
Another standout performance from Jamie Coward yielded him another sixth place finish - his third of the week - ahead of Ian Hutchinson on the Milwaukee BMW and Dominic Herbertson on the Haith BMW.
John McGuinness once again led off the startline but couldn’t pull the stock Honda CBR1000RR-R round for another top six finish, the 23-time winner coming home in ninth, with Philip Crowe completing the top ten.
Elsewhere, Glenn Irwin’s hopes of another top ten result were scuppered by him pulling off the Honda at the pit-stops, while Lee Johnston saw his hopes of a podium challenge ended by another DNF on the Ashcourt BMW. Meanwhile, James Hiller was a non-starter for the OMG Racing Yamaha team.
