Bradley Ray’s first season in the World Superbikes came to an end last week and unfortunately for Ray he wasn’t able to show his full potential.

An 18th place finish in race one, a 17th place finish in the super pole race and 18th place finish in the final race of the weekend was as good as it got for Ray, as technical issues hampered progress on the Algarve in Portugal.

On Saturday morning, after the third free practice, the young British rider was back out for Superpole. Despite improving significantly on his best lap (1’41”147), Ray set the eighteenth fastest time, but with two riders ahead of him subsequently disqualified, the Kent rider lined up in sixteenth place, on row six of the grid, for Race 1.

A fairly strong start allowed him to make up several places early on, but Bradley was then unable to find the kind of pace that would allow him to catch the group ahead of him. He therefore crossed the line in seventeenth place.

Speaking after race one, Ray said: “Looking at our position in the race, it isn’t great, but honesty I feel like I’m riding the bike really well and don’t feel far off. I am losing a lot of time out of the corners though and that makes the races difficult. Hopefully the team and I can find a good solution for Sunday’s sprint race and long race and finish the season strong.”

Sunday morning saw Ray back to work in the Superpole Race and second Superbike race, which concluded the Portuguese weekend.

In the sprint race, which ran over a distance of ten laps, Ray made up one place at the start and then held his position all the way to the line, finishing seventeenth.

Race 2 got underway in the afternoon. Bradley made a very strong start and was lying in around fifteenth position. Over the subsequent laps, a problem with the rear of his YZF-R1 forced him to slow, which meant he crossed the line eighteenth.

A result that does not reflect the level of the rider and technicians, all of whom worked hard at Portimao during what was the final 2023 round for the Yamaha MotoxRacing WorldSBK Team.

Giving his thoughts after another tough race, Ray said: “It’s been a difficult Sunday. I wanted to do a good job for the team in race two as that was our final race of the season but we had some technical problems throughout and so I wasn’t able to show my full potential.

“I was able to finish the race, but it was very difficult! I just want to say a massive thankyou to the entire MotoxRacing team for everything this season! It’s not been easy, but they have supported me 100% through it all.”