BSB: Peter Hickman and Davey Todd officially launch 8TEN Racing BMW

Peter Hickman and Davey Todd have officially launched 8TEN Racing ahead of the 2025 Bennetts British Superbike Championship and International Road Racing seasons.

The duo departed FHO Racing earlier this month, and now begin a new venture as co-owners of 8TEN Racing – named after the respective Isle of Man TT start numbers for Todd and Hickman. The team will receive full BMW Motorrad Motorsport support, and the 2025 BMW M1000 RR.

Hickman will continue to work with Darren Jones, who also becomes 8TEN Racing Team Manager. Meanwhile, Todd continues his partnership with crew chief Stewart Johnstone after a successful 2024 campaign together at TAS Racing.

It’s a brand-new challenge for both men, but Hickman heads into the project with plenty of business experience under his belt with PHR Performance. Hickman believes riders owning their own team is a modern way of doing things.

“It’s an exciting opportunity,” Hickman told MCN. “It’s very, very different, but honestly, I feel that it’s a bit more modern. It’s a modern way of thinking. Not only has racing changed, but the whole world has changed a lot in the last 20 years.

“Just look at Supercross. A lot of the riders are actually also the team owners because then they’re in charge of their own destiny, rather than riding for somebody else and having to do what they [the team owners] think is right all the time, whether it’s right or not. Now we can make those decisions ourselves and move in the way we believe is the right direction.”

Having Jones onboard as team manager is a coup for both Hickman and Todd, allowing them to focus on the racing side of things as much as possible.

“It’s certainly going to be a whole new challenge, balancing everything involved with running the team, but in the same breath, when it comes to racing, me and Pete have got to get our heads down,” Todd told MCN.

“That’s why we have a bunch of excellent guys onboard within the team who know what they’re doing. They don’t need telling what to do. We have Darren running the team and he knows what he’s doing given all of his experience, so having him onboard is super important.”

Hickman also believes that by owning their own team, both he and Todd are in a unique position when it comes to attracting sponsors.

“We can go to sponsors as team owners and say look, you can actually sponsor us together rather than just as one person, which for the TT in particular is super unique and presents an exciting opportunity for plenty of partners and sponsors to get involved with two of the biggest names in road racing,” he explained.

With 14 TT race wins, including three Senior TT triumphs, Hickman has been the dominant force on the island since 2018. However, Todd has long been dubbed the next big thing on the roads and duly captured his maiden Senior TT victory last year, whilst Hickman crashed out of the race.

Todd also secured victory in the Superstock race, whilst adding further podiums to his TT record in both Supersport events, the Supertwin race and the Superbike race.

At the North West 200 Todd won both Superstock races as well as the Supersport race, whilst pushing Glenn Irwin hard in both Superbike races.

Given the success of both on the roads, they have rightly been named the road racing dream team. But the question that has been asked ever since they were originally named as FHO Racing teammates last year, is whether or not they will be able to work together in the same team.

“It’s not going to be a bother,” Todd said. “Me and Pete are very similar as people, and as racers in the sense that can leave our racing on track. A lot of guys, I guess, are unable to do that, but we both leave it out on the track, then come off it and go back to being mates.

“We already have a really good relationship as it is, so there’s no reason why anything would affect that. We’re definitely up for some hard racing, we’ll be battling each other, but it won’t affect our relationship off the track.”

“At the end of the day, we’re both grown-ups,” Hickman added. “Davey’s nearly 30 and I’m already in my 30s, so we’re not kids, we’re not idiots. Obviously, we want to win on track, don’t get me wrong, but at the end of the day we’re a team and we want to try and help each other to both be at the front.

“Josh [Brookes] and I were like that. Our ethos was that we wanted to be first and second on the road and then work it out on the last lap. That’s how it should be between teammates, yes, you want to beat each other, but if you can learn something from your teammate, that’s always a bonus, and vice versa.”

The team has plenty of work ahead of them ahead of the BSB pre-season test programme which begins at Navarra on April 6-7, with bike parts arriving now.

“We are literally starting from scratch, which is really hard, particularly at this stage…but hey, I do love a challenge,” Hickman admitted.

Of course an intriguing question now that both men are co-owners of their own team is who becomes the good cop, and who will act as the bad cop in business meetings with partners, suppliers and sponsors.

“That’s a good question!! I don’t know yet,” Hickman said. We’ve not had that discussion but I guess it will depend on who we’re dealing with! We’ll work it out as we go.”

“We’re both probably the good cop to be honest,” Todd added. “Pete certainly has much more experience than I do on the business front, so hopefully I can learn some things from him. We’re working well in that sense already, trying to do the best for this team. It’s what we all want at the end of the day; to be successful. It’s a learning curve for me, but I’m enjoying it.”