Tyco Honda endured a miserable race day at Oulton Park as both Peter Hickman and Patric Muff crashed out on the opening lap of Sunday's solitary race.
Hickman made a strong start and was up to fourth before losing the front end of the CBR1000RR coming into Lodge at the end of lap one. The corner would also catch out John Hopkins later on as the wet weather wreaked havoc, and later brought a halt to proceedings.
Hickman is now 26 points away from the top six and a place in the championship showdown, but felt the incident which has dented his title hopes was close to unavoidable.
“I got a great start and was right up with the leaders and was preparing to have a good scrap with them. I was bolt upright and only just started to squeeze the brake lever and the front tyre folded under me. I was down without any warning. It was like trying to ride on ice.”
Muff's race ended even earlier as the Swiss rider suffered a highside coming out of Old Hall. The 27 year old was leading the mirror.co.uk EVO class at the time of his accident and admitted that he got a little carried away with his bright start.
“I think I got a little bit excited to be leading the class. Of course I'm really disappointed but the conditions were really bad out there.”
Team owner Ian Woollacott bemoaned the bad luck that had befallen his squad but was still pleased that his riders had put themselves in such strong positions prior to crashing.
“The conditions made racing a lottery and our riders just copped some bad luck. I was pleased with Patric again because he made good progress in the both the wet and dry conditions over the weekend. Peter did a great job too in qualifying and, if you're going to crash out on the first lap, I'd sooner he was right in the mix at the front end having a go to try and get on the podium. We'll put this behind us and look forward to the triple-header Brands Hatch round on August 7.”
