Bradley Ray continued his impressive rookie season in the MCE British Superbike Championship by taking his first podium in the premier series. 

Ray showed that even at such a young age he has the talent to mix it up the front, in the second race of the opening showdown weekend at Silverstone Ray was racing title fighter Leon Haslan and race winner Dan Linfoot finishing in third place.

At the start Leon Haslam launched into the lead ahead of Dixon and Linfoot, but the RAF Regular & Reserves Kawasaki rider moved ahead on the opening lap to push his JG Speedfit Kawasaki rival back into second place.

Byrne started from the fourth row and he was pushing into the top ten by the second lap, but at the front Dixon was leading the pack from Linfoot, Haslam, Iddon and Hopkins. However after scoring a podium in race one, the American crashed out unhurt on the Moto Rapido Ducati.

Dixon was holding the lead, but Haslam was making a fight back, passing Linfoot into Lodge on the eighth lap with Ray also joining the scrap for the podium. On the tenth lap though Haslam hit the front of the pack with a decisive move at Lodge on the brakes. Dixon was dropping back and Linfoot had moved into second for Honda Racing and was waiting to make his move on the race leader.

Rookie Ray had moved into third place with a lunge on Dixon at Old Hall on the 15th lap. The 20-year-old was in close contention; however the podium order went down to the wire with Haslam leading as the trio crossed the line to start the final lap.

Linfoot made his move at Old Hall to take the lead but Haslam instantly fought back to move back ahead on the JG Speedfit Kawasaki. It wasn’t over though as Linfoot did everything he could to make a move back and he did just that and the pair crossed the line virtually inseparable but it was the Honda Fireblade who had the edge.

For Ray the third place marked his debut podium finish in MCE BSB as he became the 15th different podium finisher in the 2017 season and score the first top three finish for the new Suzuki.

Speaking after the weekend, Ray said: ““I am speechless to be honest; to get my first podium finish in the Superbike class on the new Suzuki is unbelievable. At the start of the year I said to the team lets aim for top tens and to score points then we will be happy as we are developing the bike, so to come away with a podium is incredible.

“I was pushing on quite hard and caught the boys and took the podium which was a great experience for me too to follow Dan and Leon for those laps. I have learnt a lot today and we can work from this and try and keep the ball rolling.”