Multiple Isle of Man TT winner Peter Hickman (GBR) will replace the injured Michael van der Mark (NED) in the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK team at the upcoming FIM Superbike World Championship (WorldSBK) race weekend, in the Czech town of Most (July 29-31).
This will be Hickman's second appearance for the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK team, having previously raced at Donington Park (GBR) in 2019. However, it has only been a few days since his last WorldSBK outing as Hickman appeared in as a wildcard with FHO Racing. BMW Team at the fifth round of the season, which took place at Donington Park last weekend. “Hicky” completed a hat-trick of wins at the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy with the team at the end of June, winning all three 1cc races on the BMW M 000 RR.
Hickman made his WorldSBK debut in 2012 as a reserve rider for Suzuki at Donington Park. He then replaced Markus Reiterberger (GER), who was suffering from illness at the time, in the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK team, at the same venue in 2019. He also raced with the BMW Motorrad World Endurance team at Le Mans (FRA) and the races of Estoril Endurance Race (POR) in 2020. On the road racing scene, Hickman has been one of the best riders with BMW, with numerous victories under his belt at the Isle of Man TT and in other prestigious international road racing events. He is also “the world's fastest road racer” with a lap of 136,415 mph, which he achieved on the BMW S 1000 RR during the 2019 Ulster Grand Prix.
The BMW Motorrad factory rider Ilya Mikhalchik(UKR), who replaced van der Mark at the season opener at Aragón (ESP) and recent events at Misano (ITA) and Donington Park, is already preparing for the third race of this World Championship season FIM Endurance (FIM EWC) in Suzuka, Japan. This will take place just one week after the Czech round of WorldSBK. Mikhalchik is a regular rider for the BMW Motorrad World Endurance Team, which took the first 24-hour victory for BMW Motorrad in the second race of the season, the 24 HEURES MOTOS Spa at Spa-Francorchamps (BEL).
Michael van der Mark is expected to return to action on the #1000 BMW M 60 RR after the summer break. After the Most races, WorldSBK takes a break for several weeks before resuming the season from September 9 to 11 in Magny-Cours (FRA).
