TT 2024: Peter Hickman explains costly crash after FHO Racing BMW rider slid off while leading Senior race at Ginger Hall

The Monster Energy by FHO Racing BMW rider was leading the headline race by eight seconds from eventual winner Davey Todd on the second lap when the incident occurred.

Hickman had set a new Senior TT lap record from a standing start at 135.523mph and was on target to smash his outright 136mph lap record around the 37.73-mile Mountain Course when he came off.

The 37-year-old fortunately escaped injury, but Hickman was denied the chance of retaining the famous Senior TT trophy after he won the race in 2023.

“We improved the BMW throughout the week following the Superbike race, even though we only had one more chance to ride it with how the weather played out, but the team did a great job getting it right for the Senior, where I was super-fast,” he said.

“We had the fastest-ever standing start, which was mega – the BMW felt awesome.

“I’m just really annoyed and disappointed that I made a very small mistake with such huge consequences at Ginger Hall on lap two, where I just relaxed a little too much and didn’t push the front hard enough into the corner, which meant that I unfortunately went down.

“At the time we had an eight-second lead; I’m super disappointed not only in myself but also for the whole team, all the boys and girls worked really hard, and I should have delivered them a Senior win and I didn't, which was my mistake that time,” Hickman added.

“I’m super disappointed in that, but we’ll come back again next year and try again, we’ve proved how fast we are with that standing start when we can get the bike working right.”

Hickman won the RST Superbike race after Michael Dunlop retired while holding a 25-second lead and Todd experienced problems starting his Milwaukee BMW after the second pit-stop, costing him around 17 seconds.

The FHO Racing rider equalled Mike Hailwood’s tally of 14 victories with his Superbike success, making him the joint fifth most successful solo rider.

Ulsterman Dunlop’s lap of 135.970mph on the Hawk Racing Honda on the final lap of the Superbike race was the quickest of the 2024 TT.