Kent’s Bradley Ray couldn’t have asked for a better start to the Bennetts British Superbike Championship this Easter weekend, with victory in race one and an excellent win in race two.

The 20-year-old from Lydd in just his second season in the premier class, one his first ever BSB race, holding off a last lap challenge from the more experienced Shane ‘Shakey’ Byrne and James Ellison.

Having got an excellent start Ray found himself behind Leon Haslam in third place, and it wasn’t long before he made the move to take second place, and he had the yellow machine of Ellison in his sights then.

Taking the lead on lap six and that was it then as the youngster put some blistering laps in on the Suzuki to take the fastest lap of the race, and calmly take his first every victory in the BSB.

Speaking after the race, a delighted Ray said: “From qualifying and from the practice pace we had, I knew we could run the pace of the top five but I did not expect to lead a race from the third or fourth lap in to the end of the race and win in!

“The last two laps I was thinking ‘this is real now, we’ve got to try and concentrate and get the job done’ and I did make a few mistakes getting a bit excited but honestly I can’t thank the team enough for the effort they put in through the winter and getting the bike set up and changing the areas that I struggled a lot last year, so I’m hoping we can be up with the front boys for the rest of the year and be challenging for podiums more often.

“The bit that got me, the second to last lap I came round with +1.2 and I thought ‘if I can keep this pace to the last lap we should be okay’ and I came round onto the last lap and I had +0 and I heard a bike behind me and I thought ‘oh no’ but I tried to keep my cool through the whole race.

“I had a big moment out of the Foggy Esses on the last lap and I thought ‘oh no’ and I could hear a bike coming up the inside so I braked as late as I could and just went straight to the apex and stopped the bike, and the coming out I heard a different bike, I heard a Ducati, and I thought ‘I know exactly who that is’ so I just went straight to the apex again for the last corner, stopped it and just fired it out and hoped it would be enough and luckily it was.

“It was just an unbelievable feeling to cross the line first, and to lead that many laps with a fairly good pace was quite good and an eye-opener for us and the team.”

The second race of the weekend saw Ray start on pole position, alongside Byrne and Glenn Irwin, as the lights went out Ray had a lightening quick start that saw him pull away from Linfoot and Haslam as the race approached quarter distance.

There was no stopping Ray as he pulled out a 3.5 second lead over the far more experienced Leon Haslam in second place, crossing the line for a quite remarkable double win of the weekend, and his second ever BSB victory.

Speaking after a remarkable weekend, Ray said: “It’s the sort of start that you want, but to be honest I never dreamed that it would be possible. As a rookie last year and coming into a new season, I expected to be up with the front boys but not leading races or winning them! It helped with me being in pole and being able to lead on the first few laps because I was able to get to the damp patches first and just make a little bit of a lead.

“It was one of those races where you need to take a risk but don’t want to take too much of a risk. I was prepared to do it though, and I told myself ‘let’s go for it, let’s have this!’ It’s just an unbelievable feeling, and I’m really speechless trying to explain how it feels.”

Images courtesy of https://psp-images.photoshelter.com/index