Ulster GP: Hickman: 'Record could go as high as 136mph'

Peter Hickman believes the Ulster Grand Prix lap record could reach an average speed of 136mph this week.

Off the back of his best ever MCE British Superbike weekend at Thruxton and his most successful Isle of Man TT to date, Hickman looks set to be one of the men to beat as the event kicks off tomorrow.

Ian Hutchinson set the current lap record for the iconic Dundrod circuit, but Hickman reckons it’s far from what it could be and says should conditions be right, the bar could be raised to 135 or 136mph in Thursday or Saturday’s racing.

“It all depends on the conditions obviously, if we can have a good couple of days of practice and get to Saturday with some good laps under our belt then I don’t see why we can’t push it up to maybe 135 or 136mph,” he said.

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“It’d be great to have a lap record around a road circuit, apart from my newcomer record at the TT I’ve not had an outright lap record anywhere on the roads so it’d be nice to do something like that, and good to do it at the Ulster.”

Having won his first international road race at the Ulster Grand Prix two years ago, Hickman is hoping for a return to the top step as racing gets underway at Dundrod on Thursday.

“It’s been a really strong year for me, the BMW has been working really well, we’ve managed to find a little bit of a sweet spot with it, which makes life a lot easier.

“We want to turn up at Dundrod and have some good racing and at least be on the podium a few times and we want wins as well, that’s why we’re turning up. I can’t see why we can’t be in the top three in all the classes.

“I’m expecting there to be a few of us at the front, and hopefully we’ll put on some good racing for the fans; Michael Dunlop, Dean Harrison, Dan Kneen and Conor Cummins should all be in the mix.” 

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