Hawk Racing
Crazy tales from the paddock
In 25 years of professional racing, a hell of a lot can happen... from tool bikes been nicked to standing on the top step of the TT podium. Hawk Racing’s story is even more impressive than you may imagine. It’s the story of a team founded on passion and determination, and has a family feel like no other.
If you’re a fan of British Superbikes, you will have no doubt heard of Hawk Racing, more familiarly known as the Buildbase Team of recent times. The team was founded in 1996 by Stuart Hicken, and it goes without saying that these lads have been doing something right to be here 25 years on, and still going strong. The story starts with Stuart’s long and fruitful association with the sport when he started racing motorcycles in the late 1960s. His successful 12-year career saw him compete against multiple world champions, Giacomo Agostini and Phil Read, but Hicken gained as much pleasure from preparing the motorcycles as he did from riding them. After retiring from racing, Stuart went on to work in the Grand Prix and World Superbike paddock before returning to the UK racing scene in 1996 to start his own team. But it’s not all been plain sailing for the tightly-knit squad – they’ve had their fair share of hurdles along the way! Sure, Hawk racing have won multiple championships and international road races, and come within touch of that illusive BSB title, but they’ve also endured stolen bikes, burnt vans and more mechanical issues than probably all of our readers combined. Yet, through thick and thin, they’re still here, still performing and best of all, still smiling. I popped over to Mallory Park where the team are based to catch up with Steve Hicken, son of Stuart, who now runs the team. It’s safe to say it runs in Steve’s blood and there haven’t been many races that he has missed since his first memory of being at the tracks. So the question is, how did it all start for him? “I started going to all of the races the year Dad came back to British Championship. I’d have been 10 or 11 years old, but it wasn’t until 2002 when I started to get my hands on the job. I was Glen’s tyre man, before getting on the spanners in 2004.”
It was at this time that Hawk Racing really established themselves as British championship front-runners; they had signed Glen Richards to partner Mark Burr, running Kawasaki ZX -7Rs, but with manufacturer backing for the first time. “In 2003 we made a big push for good equipment, we collected two factory bikes from Germany, and we ran Scott Smart alongside Glen,” said Steve. “1000cc bikes were on the scene at the point, but we could still take it to them on our sweet handling ZX-7.”
It seems this team have always been able to make the best of a challenging situation. Whether it be a lack of horse-power or budget, they can always dig out some brilliant results!
“The new ZX-10R turned up in March 2004. The bike was good and we had two prime talents but with no testing time, round one was an absolute disaster. We had three big crashes and engines go wrong, but we went on to win four races that year with Scott, and take the world’s first win on a 1,000cc Kawasaki. It was a great year.”
The manufacturers don’t always get it right though, and in 2006 the twin exhaust ‘wheelbarrow’ ZX-10R was born.
“It was the worst bike ever,” said Steve. “If there was ever a bike that would have stopped us racing, it would have been that.” The team have a mint collection of bikes, spanning their 25-year career, but it certainly doesn’t feature in the line-up.
Dean Thomas and Craig Coxhell raced the new ZX-10s this year, while a young 19-year-old rookie by the name of Pete Hickman joined the squad and rode the older (better) model 2005 bike, regularly having the beating of them.
Scott Smart made a return to the team in 2007, hoping for the same previous success he had with Hawk.
“It just wasn’t the same as 2004. Those days were gone and he was not getting on with the new bike. We replaced Scott with James Haydon with a few rounds to go. Straight away he had great enthusiasm and it lifted the whole team, and we were straight back into the top 10. If Haydon hadn’t have ridden that bike for the rest of the year, we’d have quit.” I guess with any great team, in some seasons things just don’t work out.
Fast-forward to 2011, and Hawk Racing moved to manufacture supported BMW machinery, and with added title sponsorship from Buildbase. They hit the ground running with Richard Cooper in the seat, and took BMW to their very first National Superstock Championship win.
Off the back of such a high, the next few
years seemed pretty mediocre and it wasn't until 2014 that the team really got back up to the pointy end.
“I don't know why the hell my Dad signed him after such a shocking year in 2013 on the Samsung Honda, but for 2014 we had Kiyo on our bike,” said Steve. But it wasn’t an easy start to the year.
“It was the first race meeting that has brought me to tears. At Oulton Park (round two) we tried so hard. In the first race he was coming through the pack and the crank snapped while in third place. In race two we had an oil leak, so he pulled out of both races. I just knew we had given away a chance to get back to the podium – the glory days of those podiums were back 10 years ago.” But as they say, what you put in, you get back. “We had a big day testing at Knockhill and Kiyo rode from 9am ‘til 6pm,
we just could not get him in. Knockhill round four, we put it on pole position, and finished first and second.”
This was the start of the championship fight with Kiyo. The team had a fast rider, but they also had consistency. Buildbase BMW went on to take seven wins in 2014, including their home race double victory at Donington Park.
The great results didn’t end there. Hawk signed Michael Dunlop for the TT. “My dad had worked with his dad, Robert, so there was added pressure,” Steve explained.
They won both Superbike races and the Superstock race at the Isle of Man, and it was the start of the team’s great relationship with Michael. But being this successful doesn’t always guarantee you the fortune or loyal support of the manufacture, as Hawk was to learn at the end of 2014.
“Racing really took a downturn in my eyes when you come away from taking seven BSB wins, and nearly winning the championship but loosing through injury at the very last meeting.
“That year we won four races at the Southern 100 – one at the NorthWest 200, three at the TT; you're sort of walking round like you’ve got a 12-inch cock. To then get a phone call at the end of the season to say ‘oh, we’re going to give the BMW deal to TAS Racing’... I was thinking, we're probably the most successful team in the country at the moment. Everywhere we’ve been, we’ve won. I was left feeling, what can we do? That was so disappointing.”
So why did they get the deal? “I thought I’d done a professional job by winning races. I was employed as a race team, I’m not a chef, and I delivered the wins, so that was a massive kick in the bollocks!”
Looking at what the team achieved in 2015 and 2016, you could argue that the loss of the manufacture backing from BMW really was no detriment whatsoever. If anything, it fuelled the fire, and I guess the cherry on the top had to be winning the Superstock championship with Taylor Mackenzie, and winning both of the Superbike races at the Isle of Man TT in 2016 – beating the factory-supported team in both. Nothing quite says ‘up yours’ like that, does it?
Steve’s true passion for winning races is paramount, and what he did for Michael Dunlop in 2015 proves just that.
You’re going to love this story. It was the year Dunlop signed for Milwaukee Yamaha and decided to switch teams halfway through TT practice week.
“I was playing five-a-side football and my phone rings at 9.30pm. It’s Michael. ‘I’ve split with Yamaha, can you load the bike up, and can you get on the boat... tonight. It leaves at 2.30am?’
“Our bikes were nowhere near ready, as they are stripped down in between BSB meetings. I loaded two of Kiyo’s BSB bikes and all of the tools at 11pm, got to the ferry port for 2.30am and the boat was full, so we slept for a few hours, then unloaded the bikes and started prepping them in the car park before the afternoon ferry. It was just a blur. The TT takes a year of planning; we did it in a day and a half. In the race, at the end of lap six, Michael was up to second place.
“With less than a mile to go, a back marker crashes, the bike bounces back into the track and Michael hits it full chat. I think that second place would have meant more than the wins.”
What a whirlwind! Most would have packed their bags and headed for the next available ferry, surely. “Nope! It’s one of the craziest but best things we’ve done. Despite a dislocated shoulder, Michael still made the senior race at the end of the week and finished fifth, coming away with the fastest BMW lap around the TT in 2015.”
The team continued with Michael on the roads in 2016, starting with a race win at the NW200. In fact, they hold the lap record to this day. They won both Superbike races at the TT, four wins at the Southern 100, and finished the year with one win and two thirds at the Ulster GP. As a privateer BMW entry, they managed 8/10 wins with Michael in 2016. That is some success rate.
The year 2017 saw a change in shape and colour as Hawk Racing became the factory supported Suzuki team. If changing brands wasn’t enough work, they took on two title sponsors and essentially the team was
split in two: Sylvain Guintoli, Taylor Mackenzie and Richard Cooper on the Bennetts side, and Brad Ray and Alex Olson with Buildbase.
A huge amount of work goes on behind the scenes during a manufacture swap, from setting up parts accounts to the leather deigns, let alone trying to understand what it takes to make a new bike go fast.
This was a huge undertaking for the team, but in true Hawk style, they won the first Superstock race of the year with Cooper (and narrowly missed out on the championship in the end), took the race victory at Assen with Sylvain, and won the Senior TT with Michael Dunlop.
You could say, since then, things have been a bit more ‘normal’ in the Hawk camp. They went to ‘one’ team with Buildbase in 2018 and hit the ground running, taking the double race victory at Donington Park with Brad Ray. They consistently proved the GSX-R as a capable podium finisher with
Brad in Superbike and, again, narrowly missing out on the Superstock Championship with Billy McConnell.
2019 was Hawk’s most challenging season in recent times. Following the success with Brad on the superbike in 2018, everyone thought they would have challenged for the championship that following year – but nothing is ever guaranteed in racing.
When I asked what went wrong, I got a simple answer: “We tried too hard, and we made too many changes.” Hawk are not the only team to have found themselves in that position, but they have the balls to put their hands up. More to the point, they learn, and ended that season with another Superstock Championship to their name at the hands of Richard Cooper.
Hawk Racing has special ability to extract the best out of young riders. They have done it time and time again – Scott Smart, Peter Hickman, Lee Jackson, Brad Ray, and in 2020 they did not disappoint with Kyle
Ryde in his rookie Superbike season. In a championship dominated by Ducati for the last two years, Hawk demonstrated blistering pace with Kyle on the Suzuki at most of the tracks. He took the double race win at Silverstone, missing out on other podiums through no fault of their own. Oh, and they took a chance on me, provided an awesome bike and a perfect environment in which to achieve my first national victory in Superstock 1000.
This year looks exciting. I am continuing in the Superstock championship with the team. The bike has remained pretty much the same for the new season, bar a few electronic tweaks, meaning we can pick up where we left off.
The team has a European Superstock champion in Gino Rea and a Moto3 world champion in Danny Kent riding the Superbikes. Two talented racers and a team with 25 years of knowledge and experience.
Who knows what is possible?