Peter Hickman, FHO Racing to wild-card at Donington WorldSBK

Peter Hickman will join Tarran Mackenzie on the grid for the upcoming British round of the 2022 WorldSBK Championship at Donington Park, it has been confirmed.

The fan favourite - a multiple race winner in BSB and the Isle of Man TT - will complement his status as one of the sport’s most versatile racers by stepping up to the international stage on 15-17 July alongside the likes of Jonathan Rea and Toprak Razgatlioglu.

Marking Hickman’s third foray into WorldSBK following guest outings with Crescent Suzuki and the factory BMW team in 2012 and 2019 respectively, this will nonetheless be the first time he has done so on his own familiar machinery in what will be FHO Racing’s international debut.

“I’m mega excited to get a chance to have a go at the World superbikes. I’ve done it twice – once in 2012 with Worx Suzuki and again in 2019 with the BMW World Superbike team but both times were last minute arrangements, jumping on bikes I had never seen before.

“This time I’ll be riding my FHO Racing BMW which I race in the British Superbike Championship so that will be good. We are having to work on raising the electronics package to World Superbike spec which will change things quite a lot which could be interesting but we’ll see.

“I think it’s fantastic that we’re getting the chance to do this as a team and it’s all down to Faye. She’s owned the team for a year and a half and we’ve already done BSB, North West 200, Isle of Man TT and now we’re getting to do a World Superbike wildcard which is pretty cool.

“It’ll be good for everyone in the team to get to do a World Superbike round together, we’ve all done bits here and there not as a team so I think it’s going to be a really great thing for us all.”

Hickman’s WorldSBK outing comes little more than a month after he swept to four victories on the 2022 Isle of Man TT, taking his career total up to nine wins.

He will be one of two BSB regulars competing at Donington Park with 2021 BSB champion Mackenzie making his WorldSBK debut with McAMS Yamaha