Last weekend was another successful one for Lydd’s Bradley Ray in the latest round of the Dickies British Supersport Championship. 

With a second place in the sprint race on Saturday afternoon, he went one better on Sunday afternoon taking his third win of the season in the feature race.

The weekend got off to a great start for the confident 19-year-old, who ended the first free practice session in fifth place, only 0.8 of a second behind fastest man James Westmoreland.

After tweaks to the set-up of his FAB-Racing Yamaha R6, Ray improved in time by over three quarters of a second in a shortened session due to spitting rain meaning the riders wouldn’t be able to push harder, leaving Brad in second place, only 0.012 behind Westmoreland who topped the session.

Qualifying on Saturday morning would see Ray finish the ultra-fast session in third place, only three tenths behind the pole man James Westmoreland. Ray improved in time once again, posting a 1:38.130 ahead of the sprint race on Saturday.

From the lights Brad made a great start on board his FAB-Racing Yamaha, and grabbed second place after the first corner. However, after hitting a false neutral he dropped back to fifth position. He then made his way back through the pack to grab second place back, setting the fastest lap of the race in the process.

On the final lap he just couldn’t find his way past Mason Law, crossing the line in second place, closing the points gap on the leaders of the Championship.

By virtue of his lap time in race one, Brad started from pole for the fourth time this season picking up another Royal London watch.

From the lights he made a great start and led from the front, battling with Mason Law for the lead of the race. Brad allowed Law to lead until the final lap of the race, where he made a strong move into ‘Cascades’ grabbing the lead.

However, as Brad controlled the race, fending off Mason Law for most of the lap, the Gearlink Kawasaki rider had to drop back following a technical issue with his machine, leaving Brad to take his third win in four races, and further close the gap to the Championship leaders.

Following the weekend, a delighted Ray said: “I’m really happy with this weekend, in fact I’m delighted. I knew Sunday’s race would be hard with Mason, because he had great pace all weekend long and when I followed him in the sprint race he had good pace in the final three sectors of the track. I knew I had to pass him in sector one and do my best to keep in front of him.

“He came past me mid race and I just sat behind to see where he’s fastest and find out where I needed to improve, the last lap I made my move but I didn’t know he had a problem with his bike and I just kept my head down, I’m so happy.

“I can’t thank my team enough, these results are down to them, they have worked so hard and given a lot to me. I can’t wait for Donington now, we aren’t far behind the Championship lead and all I need to do I just keep my head down and pile on the pressure.”

Brad now sits in third place of the Dickies British Supersport Championship on 209 points, only 45 behind the series leader James Westmoreland, with 150 points left to play for.

Images courtesy of www.psp-images.co.uk