Solid Start To Moto2 Season For Bradley Ray

Lydd’s Brad Ray achieved a 20th and 16th place finishes in the first round of the European Moto2 Championship at Portimao this weekend. 

Brad arrived at the Portuguese circuit high in confidence after working hard in the pre season test’s, improving the set up of his Vyrus to give him more confidence on the front end. 

In the untimed free practice sessions on Friday, Brad worked hard with his team to gain more confidence on board his Moto2 machinery, focusing on the suspension and chassis.

Come Saturday and the qualifying sessions, Brad and his Vyrus Racing team made a further step forward. Brad put in his fastest lap of the session, in the second session posting a 1:49.7, to place him in 25th on the grid. 

Overnight, Brad worked with the team to improve the bike and they made further improvements ahead of the races. From the lights Brad got a great start and after lap one he had climbed nine places to 16th. But due to running on a stock engine, he had a lack of power coming out of the corners and down the straights. But Brad fought hard, eventually taking the flag in 20th position. 

Race two and Brad made a much better start from the line and was running with the group who were battling for 12th position. Due to the weather taking a turn for the worse during the race, Brad took advantage of the rain and made his way up to 14th, but then the red flag came out and it was declared a result from the previous lap, putting Brad back to 16th. 

After the weekend, Brad said: “I’m very happy with the progress of the bike and I’m extremely happy with how hard the team worked over the weekend. For me to be running close to the points in my first Moto2 race is fantastic, I just can’t wait to get back out there. 

“I just want to thank all my team and family, and everyone who helped me with this opportunity.”

Brad’s attention will now shift his attentions to the second round of the European Moto2 Championship, which takes place at Catalunya in June. 

Mechanical Issues Hinder Ray At Brands

Brad Ray suffered a difficult end to his weekend at Brands Hatch, after suffering mechanical issues in the race.

After a mad dash from his three days of testing his Vyrus Moto2 at the Potimao Circuit in Portugal, Brad made it to Brands Hatch in time for the second round of the British Superbike Championship, after agreeing to a one off ride for the Moto-Breakers Superstock 600 team.

From the start on Friday morning Brad worked hard on his setup, to achieve a better feeling with the bike, and in the free practice session Brad was only one second shy of the fastest man in the session, Ben Currie. An impressive start, to say it was Brad’s first time out on the bike. 

Prior to qualifying, Brad and the Moto-Breakers team worked hard to improve the setup on his Kawasaki ZX6-R and saw with Brad improving his time by eight tenths of a second, placing him in 22nd position and ahead of a number of well established stock 600 ridersCome the start of the race, drama struck with Brad’s gear selector breaking as he came to the grid, forcing him to start the race from the pit lane. But on the first lap, there was a four-rider crash, leading to a 90 minute delay. 

Come the restart, Brad lined up in his original grid position, but as soon as the race got under he realised his machine wasn’t the same. It wouldn’t even pull top gear and he lost down speed down the straights. But the youngster rode hard to take the 29th place. 

After the race, Brad said: “This weekend started well and I made good progress, and I started to improve my times. Qualifying went well and I was only six tenths behind the pole man. 

“I felt good in the race, but then the bike would just not pull away in top gear. But although I’ve enjoyed my weekend, and I can’t wait for this weekend where I start my CEV season at Portimao.” 

This weekend is the start of the Spanish CEV Moto2 Championship, where he will compete on the factory Vyrus.

Photography: 

Bonnie Lane

Dream Start To 2015 For Ray

Bradley Ray took to the podium twice this weekend at Donington Park, achieving his first win of the season.

After loaning a bike from Redline KTM prior to the weekend, the Kent teenager came into the first round of the British season in high spirits, confident of achieving two good results.

The weekend got off to the best of starts for the youngster, in a cold and cloudy free practice session. Brad put in a time good enough for second place, only half a second behind Taz Taylor.

The first qualifying session on Saturday afternoon saw Brad improve in time by 1.3 seconds, posting a 1:39.525. Only two tenths of a second behind the provisional pole man, Scott Deroue.

Come Sunday, Brad made improvements with the setup of his Redline KTM, but he couldn’t achieve pole position, and would start from second on the grid, for Sunday’s race.

With the sun blazing over the circuit for the first time all weekend, Brad made a great leap from the lights and battled with Deroue and Taylor for the lead. But after one lap, the Dutchman Deroue crashed leaving it to Brad and Taz Taylor to battle it out.

On the final lap Taylor pushed his way past on the back straight, but Brad regained the lead heading into the ‘Foggy’ esses with a late breaking move. And he held the lead all the way to the take the flag, to achieve his first victory of the 2015 season.

Come race two on Monday, in the hottest conditions that were seen over the three days, Brad made a great start and ran with the front two riders of Deroue and Taylor.

Constant over taking ensued throughout the race, but on the final lap back markers got in Brad’s way heading into the ‘Foggy’ esses. And after Taz Taylor made a mistake on the final lap, Brad just couldn’t catch Deroue in the run to the run to the line, and took the flag in second place.

After the weekend an ecstatic Ray said: “I was on the pace from the off, Taz was quicker than me in the first free practice and he tested here a couple of weeks ago. But after that I was always 0.2 or 0.3 seconds off first place, so I knew I’d have the race pace.

“Before the race I thought I wasn’t too far off but then when I got out there, there was quite a difference in speed between my bike and the factory KTM’s. Every breaking opportunity I had I was breaking later and pushing harder into the corner to make up the difference.

“It all worked out in the end but I knew I wasn’t going to win them both, but I knew I had the chance of a podium so I pushed hard and got second in race two, so I’m very happy.

“A massive thanks to Tim at Redline for loaning the bike this weekend and all the hard work put in by my Dad and everyone involved.”

Brad now turns his attention to his final test on the Vyrus Moto2 in Portimao next week, to put the final touches to his racing machine, before the first round at the end of April.

Photography: 

Bonnie Lane

Bradley Ray To Ride For The Vyrus Factory

Lydd’s Brad Ray is ready to do battle in the FIM CEV Moto2 European Championship on board a brand new machine after signing for the Vyrus Factory Race Team.

After turning many heads in a successful 2014 season, the 17 year old now steps up onto the 600cc machine in the search of the 2015 European Moto2 title.

‘The Bard” completed a very positive two day test late on in 2014 for the Vyrus Factory Team at the Valencia Ricardo Tormo circuit, in which he impressed the bosses of the team after regularly chipping away at his times on his first outing on a 600cc machine.

Brad completed his hectic 2014 calendar with a fourth in the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup with three podiums along the way, third place in the Motul British Motostar 125cc Championship after many dominant performances throughout the season, and 11^th in the CEV Moto3 Championship despite missing some rounds in both the Motostar and CEV Championships due to date clashes.

All smiles ahead of the new season...

Vyrus are privately an exclusive motorcycle brand creating exciting and beautiful machines to be ridden on the road, but have now turned their attentions to fielding a racing machine.

After months of research and development, and many days of testing, the team are now ready to move forward and launch an attack on the Moto2 European Championship with the radical Vyrus machine.

A jubilant Brad said after signing for the team: “This is a really exciting project and I can't wait to race and help develop the Vyrus with the team and their sponsors for the up and coming season on their Moto2 bike.

“This is a great opportunity for me and I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone involved in setting up this project.”

Brad’s first official test on the Vyrus Factory machine will be run on the 20th/21st/22nd of February at the Cartagena circuit in Spain. 

Photography By: 

Bonnie Lane & Andrea Bardi

Top Five Finish In Portugal For Bradley Ray

Lydd’s Brad Ray finishes the penultimate round of the Spanish CEV Moto3 Championship in fifth place after qualifying ninth.

Competing in his seventh race of the Spanish CEV Championship season, Brad headed to the Portimao circuit high on confidence.

The Friday test sessions, which do not offer official timing, saw the team working hard on the KRP/FAB-Racing FTR-KTM looking for the best set up for Brad to be able to push hard and produce the fast times required to compete against the world class field of 37 riders.

In qualifying Brad had the confidence in the set up to run at the top end of the time sheets with a 1:50.571 lap placing him 8th quickest. Q2 didn’t fair as well for the youngster as he dropped one place on the grid to 9th, just 1.7 seconds off pole man Fabio Quartararo's time after making changes to the setup.

Brad (28) looking for a tow during qualifying... 

The team reverted the changes ahead of morning warm up on the Sunday, which gave Brad confidence ahead of the 16-lap race.

As the start lights went out on Sunday the ‘Bard’ made a poor start, giving himself a lot of work to do. But after four laps he had worked his way up to seventh, and was on the hunt for the leading pack.

He worked hard to move up the standings, but with a gap of 10 seconds to fourth place Brad had a lonely ride to the flag, eventually crossing the line in fifth place. 

After the race Brad said: “I caught the second group of riders but it took too much time to pass them all and I realised that catching the leading group was not going to happen so I was happy to settle for 5th place and 11 points”

Brad now sits ninth in the Spanish CEV Moto3 Championship with just the final round of the Championship in two weeks time at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit in Valencia, that has a 2 race format for the Moto3, where Brad will be hoping to round off 2014 with a heap of points.

Photography By: 

CEV

Tough End To 2014 For Bradley Ray At Brands Hatch

Brad Ray crashed out of his home round of the Motul British Motostar Championship at Brands Hatch after taking pole position in difficult conditions.

Brad came into the final round of the Motul British Motostar Championship on a high after his win at Silverstone two weeks ago, and confident he would end his year with a victory at his home round.  

That confidence was on show straight from the off on a wet circuit during Friday’s first free practice session, topping the sheets by four tenths from Moto3 rider Joe Irving. The circuit dried out for the afternoon session, and it was role reversal with Irving, the ‘Bard’ only five hundredths of a second behind in second place.

Just like the Friday morning the rain had closed in during the night and dampened the circuit off for the first of two qualifying sessions on Saturday. In Q1, Brad handled the tricky conditions well to finish in second behind Joe Irving by seven tenths of a second. The second session faired better for Brad, after the track dried he posted a 1:34.990 lap, half a second quicker than the second place man, meaning the ’Bard’ would start from pole position for Sunday’s 12 lap race.

Sunday morning saw Brad experience mechanical issues with the FAB-Racing EE125, which made him sit out of the warm up. The team worked hard to get the bike ready for the race, eventually deciding to change back to an old engine that was officially over its reconditioned mileage.

As the lights went out Brad got a great start and took the holeshot into Paddock Hill Bend and led from the front. After only three laps he had a five second gap in front of second position and felt good with the bike. But the very next lap he entered the Graham Hill Bend and lost the rear when he applied the power to his EE125, luckily he walked away uninjured.

A frustrated Brad said after the race: “The start of the weekend went well, we put a new engine in prior to the free practice two and it didn’t miss a beat through qualifying. But Sunday morning the crank broke and we reverted to the old engine with lots of miles on it for the race.

“I got into a little rhythm in the race, and I felt good and the bike felt good but then I crashed at Graham Hill Bend. I just tipped in, opened the gas and it slid away from me. Top three in the Championship is brilliant. Roberto’s happy, I’m happy so we can’t complain.”

Brad ends the 2014 Motul British Motostar 125cc Championship in third place, just reward after the hard work all year.

Photography By: 

Bonnie Lane

Battling Victory For Bradley Ray At Silverstone

Bradley Ray took his fifth win of the season on Sunday at Silverstone, setting a new lap record in the process.

After ending his Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup career with a podium last weekend in Aragon, Bradley Ray headed into the penultimate round of the Motul British Motostar Championship in a confident mood.

During the free practice sessions on Friday, Brad set his stall out by posting a 2:21.264 lap, six tenths quicker than the Moto3 rider Joe Irving. In hotter conditions for free practice two, Brad improved his time by 2.2 seconds and posted a 2:19.0 lap, sending him into qualifying in high spirits.

Ahead of qualifying on Saturday the team made the decision to change the engine in the EE125 machine, giving Brad a better chance of heading the pack for Sunday’s 10 lap race.

But the weather took a turn for the worst ahead of the first qualifying session, forcing the riders to head out on wet tyres with constant rain during the 20 minutes. Brad only completed five laps, due to a mechanical problems with the FAB-Racing EE125, but was still able to post a 2:41.322 lap, only 0.317 off Joe Irving in pole.  The team was forced to revert to the older engine for race day.

Qualifying two was cancelled due to the rain delaying the timetable, which saw Brad starting Sunday’s race in second place on the grid.

During the morning warm up session on a dry circuit, Brad made a slight mistake and dropped the bike but hit his hand badly on the tarmac causing bleeding to his knuckles. After a trip to the medical centre, and a bandaged hand, he was was cleared to take part in the race.

After making a poor start, Brad worked his back to the front and begun his race long battle with Moto3 rider Joe Irving. As he forged his way past the ‘Bard’ set a new lap record around Silverstone, posting a 2:18.757 lap. After swapping places with Irving, Brad took the flag early due to a red flag stopping the race, as the first man across the line, and also the first 125.

After the race Brad said: “Today we went into the race with a positive attitude, the first few laps the bike felt good and I felt good and pushed hard. I had to catch Joe Irving as he had a two second gap, I passed him but I just couldn’t pull away.   I stuck behind him for a few laps and then got past and was still there as the red flag came out so we got the win.”

Brad will now have to wait two weeks before getting out on his bike again, which see’s his first weekend off for eight weeks, before he travels to his “home” round at Brands Hatch and the final round of the Motul British Motostar Championship.

 Photography By:

Bonnie Lane