Lydd’s Bradley Ray leads the Bennetts British Superbike Championship after a solid home round last weekend at Brands Hatch. Bradley Ray took second in the opening race after qualifying on Pole aboard his GSX-R1000, and he followed that up in the second race with a solid eighth place finish in the very wet conditions.

After dominating the opening round with a double win, Ray headed to his home circuit with the championship lead, and after working meticulously with the team through practice, qualified with Pole Position for the weekend’s opening race. From there he made a strong start and led for 28 laps of the 30-lap race. He looked set to maintain his 100% record but made a small mistake into Paddock Hill bend on the penultimate lap, locking the front wheel of his GSX-R1000 under braking. He ran wide, relinquishing the lead and took the chequered flag in second place.

Again, starting from Pole in race two – after setting the fastest lap of the race and a new lap record in race one – Ray was leading when the race was stopped as the rain arrived. In the restart he took the time to find his feet in the wet conditions. With one eye very much on the championship standings and struggling for rear grip, he kept it safe, crossing the line in seventh place. He now heads the points table with a 10-point advantage.

Speaking after the weekend, Ray said: “To come away leading the championship is a big thing. We came into this weekend off the back of a really strong round one and the spotlight was on a little bit, but we know we can’t win everything. We had really good pace this weekend, and the pace was there to win race one; I just made a mistake and let Shakey [Byrne] past, and once he came by he had a few bike lengths. I didn’t try to chase, we just took second.

“In race two we led again, and I was feeling good, but it rained, and we had to go again. In the wet, the rear was spinning a lot, and, in those conditions, you can go down at any point. Seventh and nine points was good – good for our championship. We just need a bit more time in the wet to develop our set-up. We’ll look at the data and try and improve for our next wet session. But in the dry we have a good setting, good pace, and I feel really comfortable on the bike. We’ll go to Oulton with some good points and it’s nice to come away still leading the championship.”

Images courtesy of PSP Images