Hickman looks to kick-start roads campaign at North West 200

After a strong start to the 2016 British Superbike season, Peter Hickman will now turn his sights to achieving a similarly successful opening to this year’s international road racing campaign.

The Louth-based rider stunned with a shock victory in the first round of BSB at Silverstone and despite struggling in tricky conditions at Oulton, he is feeling confident in the potential of his Kawasaki ZX-10R as he heads to this week’s North West 200.

After missing last year’s event following a 150mph off in BSB, Hickman is eyeing up a strong result at the Triangle circuit having already taken victories at the Ulster Grand Prix and Macau.

This year will mark his first roads outing on a full-fat superbike, having campaigned stock machinery in the superbike classes up until now.

“I was gutted to miss last year with injury, so am really looking forward to going back,” said the TT revelation. “Aside from the Macau last year, 2016 will be the first time I actually race on the Roads using a full-spec Superbike which is quite exciting.

“It’s the same machine I use in the British championship, which is really helpful as I know what the bike’s capable of. We’ve been working throughout the winter tests to get it where I want, and I think that showed at Silverstone where we were immediately competitive and were able to take the win. Obviously the roads is a completely different discipline, but the new 2016 Kawasaki is really stable which is a great quality to have and despite only getting a day on track, we had a very strong test at the Castle Coombe circuit last week on both the Superbike and Superstock machine so I’m feeling confident of a good showing here!”