As the regular Bennetts British Superbike Championship came to an end this weekend, Kent’s Brad Ray finished it with a treble.

It is the first triple victory of his BSB career and it comes just as the showdown is about to get underway. It means that he goes into it leading the championship thanks to 18 podiums during the regular season.

In a wet qualifying he had to settle for a place on the second row for race one on Saturday. He roared into the lead and no one could really chase him down from there. He had a four second lead before easing off as the race came into the closing stages.

On Sunday he had a much closer battle with reigning champion Tarran MacKenzie, after a bit of back and forth he took the lead on the back straight in the final lap and the chequered flag. 

In race two a safety car almost ended the battle between MacKenzie and Ray with Irwin. As it turns out they all got hit with a two second penalty for jumping the safety car at the restart.

That didn’t stop Ray as he once again built a lead that was enough for him to keep the race win and take the third win of the weekend.

Speaking after the weekend, Ray said: “It’s been a mega weekend. To take my first BSB treble is a real career highlight and to do it with the RICH Energy OMG Racing Yamaha team is something special. We’ve had a really good year so far and these results set us up nicely for the next nine races.

“It wasn’t an easy weekend as Taz fought hard as you know he always will. Despite a small issue in race two, my Yamaha R1 was mega across the weekend so a big thank you to the team for giving me such a great bike.

“We’ll continue to approach every weekend the same way we have all season and I’m looking forward to getting back to Oulton Park in a couple of weeks.”

Images courtesy of Ian Hopgood