It was a tough weekend for Lydd’s Bradley Ray in Europe, taking home only nine points from both races after being caught up in a crash in race one but continued to pick up seventh place, and in a drying second race his rear tyre destroyed itself, but he continued for a 17^th place finish.
From the off in free practice Brad flew out of the blocks, ending the first session on top of the pile, posting a 1:41.4, half a second quicker than the second place man Mason Law.

After slight changes to the machine for the afternoon’s second session, Brad started off well but then after just three laps he uncharacteristically crashed out, and he was unable to restart.

After overnight rain, the qualifying session for the Dickies British Supersport Championship would be run on a damp track, and in a fluctuating session, Ray would start the afternoon’s sprint race in fourth place, at the head of the second row after posting a 1:49.9, only one second off of pole position.

From the lights Brad made a great start and started to battle within a group of riders for second position, as Mason Law pulled away at the front. However, then on lap five the Lydd man was hit from behind by Luke Jones, he took across the gravel and continued in the race, he worked his way back from ninth place to cross the line in seventh.

Following hard work from the team to repair the damage parts on the FAB-Racing Yamaha YZF-R6, he would start Sunday’s feature race from sixth on the grid by virtue of his time set in the sprint race.

Whilst on their sighting lap the rain began to fall over the Assen circuit and it was declared a wet race. From the lights Brad made a great start but as he looked to make his way through the pack, he out braked himself and ran on at turn six, re-joining the race in 17^th.

The title challenger had his work cut out to come back into the points, and as the track dried, Ray’s rear tyre destroyed itself throughout the race, forcing Brad to nurse the bike home, crossing the line in 17^th.

After the weekend a frustrated Ray said: “I don’t know what it is about Assen, but it certainly doesn’t like me, I’ve had tough results here in the past and this weekend was no different. I felt great through practice and qualifying, but I was beaten up in race one and I was really lucky to stay on the bike, so to get some points from that I was happy.

“The second race the conditions caught us out, everybody had to run the wet tyre’s because that was the only option, but the track dried so quickly, and I had just had to nurse the bike home.

“Overall this weekend has been tough to take, but we’re still in with a shout of the Championship, even though I am 50 points behind that doesn’t mean I won’t be pushing and trying my best at my home race.”

The Dickies British Supersport Championship now heads to Brands Hatch for the final round of the season, with the Championship still wide open with Brad 50 points behind the title leader.

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