Final Round Monster Energy Motostar Championship - Brands Hatch GP

The last round of the Monster Energy Motostar Championship at Brands Hatch last weekend could pretty much have ended with all the riders being flushed away on lap one. It was certainly raining as the Red lights went off but half way round lap one the heavens opened and it became almost impossible to see the track, even from pit lane. In the interests of safety the race was red flagged and then re-started as an 8 lap race after a 15 minute wait. Still in fairly heavy rain but it was at least possible to see which way to go!!

At the end of the first lap Brad came through in 5^th position behind Joe Francis, Joe Irving, and Taz MacKenzie, all on Moto3 bikes, and Andy Reid on a GP125 bike. Half way round lap 2 Reid made a successful bit for the lead but then fell almost immediately, very nearly taking Francis with him. A battle between the 2 Joe's then commenced with MacKenzie still keeping Brad at bay with both losing ground to the leaders.

At the end of lap 5 Brad was still 4^th and almost 3.50 seconds off the lead. Finally passing MacKenzie on lap 6 he completed the lap still over 3 seconds off the lead, but reduced that to under a second on the following lap!!

As the front 3 went into Paddock bend to start the last lap Francis slid off leaving Irving with a rapidly reducing lead that he held until Dingle Dell. At that point Brad decided he was not waiting any longer and bravely rode round the outside to take the lead, which he held to the line.

While the FAB-Racing EE125 is a very quick bike it is also pretty difficult to ride in the wet, so all the more credit for the overall race win, setting the fastest lap of the race (lapping at over 80mph), and leading the next GP125 Class bike home by over 22 seconds.

Next outing is at the CEV in Valencia on the 15^th to 17^th November, with 2 races at that round, and the final race of the year will be the following weekend in Jerez.

Photo shows just how wet it was.  Note the specs that are for once visible, not hidden behind his usual dark visor.  These are supplied by sports specialist optician "Eyesite Opticians" from Brighton.  Take a look at their website sometime:   www.eyesite.co.uk

Back in the Red Bull MotoGP Cup again in 2014

Although the races at the MotoGP event in Aragon last weekend gave results that were not too great for Brad, with a 6^th and 8^th positions, everything finished on a high as he was told just after race 2 that he was invited to ride in the MotoGP Red Bull Rookies Cup again next year. I don't think he took too long to say YES !!! With Red Bull showing their confidence in him Brad will, for sure, be pushing very hard for wins, podiums, and the overall Championship.

As mentioned in the previous blog there are just 3 more races to do before the end of the season, the last round of the Monster Energy Motostar Championship at Brands Hatch on the GP circuit in October, and the last 2 rounds of the CEV, Valencia and Jerez in November.

At Brands he will be riding the Engines Engineering EE125 and the Team Larresport NSF250R Moto3 at the Spanish circuits both of which he is familiar with. He will be looking forward to good results at all 3 events, although the Honda Moto3 bikes are having a hard time against the GP spec KTM bikes running in the CEV this year.

The photos attached show how close the Rookies races always are.  Brad is #28.

Race 2 Aragon and photos.

Race 2 and once again , and we seem to have to say it every time, the pack at the front went at it full on from lap 1. Brad went through at the end of lap one in 6^th place, at the end of lap 2 had pulled through to 4^th place, but back again to 6^th on lap 3 and losing time on the next lap and went back to 9^th which he held until lap 9. Two riders that had been running just off the leading group were able to pull up to the leaders and one got the better of a Brad putting him back to 10^th.

On lap 11 Karel Hanika's bike stopped, and on lap 12 Scott Deroue fell, giving Brad 8^th place at the finish of the 15 laps. 4 seconds behind the leading group who crossed the line with 0.67 seconds covering all 7!! I'm sure he would have liked it to be a more genuine 8^th but let's take what we can get and accept the points.

Fellow Brits, Jordan Weaving finished 14^th, and Tarran MacKenzie was just one place down from Brad but 10 seconds behind.

Brad's final Championship classification is 11^th but, with less points than he earned last year when he finished 7^th,he won't be overjoyed.

There are 3 more races to do before the end of the season the last round of the Monster Energy Motostar Championship at Brands Hatch on the 18^th to 20^th October and 2 CEV events, Valencia on the 15^th to 17^th November, and Jerez on the 22^nd to 24^th November.

Let's see if we can make those final 3 memorable with really good results.

Photos show how close thing run.  Brad #28 can be seen in both.  Click for larger version.

Race 1 MotoGP Red Bull Rookies Cup at Motorland Circuit Aragon.

Race 1 of the 2 race weekend at the Motorland circuit in Aragon has just finished and fortunately, and rather against yesterday's predictions, it took place in dry and sunny conditions.

As pretty much usual with the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup races it was all pretty manic at the front and finally came down to a race of 7 riders at the front and saw Brad finishing in 6^th place.

I'm sure Brad would have liked better but a 6^th place ain't bad when you consider that there was only 0.355 seconds between 2^nd and 6^th place. While Karel Hanika won the race he was helped this time when Marcos Ramirez almost fell while leading on lap 9 of the 15 laps. Ramirez succeeded in recovering a massive slide that saw the bike on its side using his knee and elbow to push the bike back up. Running off track as the bike came back upright again he got in the way of the following pack. Hanika, his luck never seems to run out, was just in the right place to avoid the problems and was able to get a small distance between himself and the following riders, which he held to the end to the tune of 1.511 seconds.

Ramirez justified and compensated for his incredible save by being able to finish in 8^th place, just 6 seconds behind 7^th placed Jorge Martin.

Fellow Brits “South African” Jordan Weaving finished 13^th and Tarran MacKenzie 16^th.

Let's see if Brad can better the result in tomorrow's race.

CEV Race at Navarra

Brad had a good weekend at the CEV at the Navarra Circuit in Aragon last weekend (20^th to 22^nd September. Even with 43 entries this was the smallest entry number of the season but all the quick teams and riders were there. On paper it may not have looked so good with a 17^th place qualification and a 15^th place finish. During the practices and qualifying Brad and the team struggled with getting the changed suspension, now Ohlin the same as the rest, set well. Changes were even made between warm up and race with no possible chance to know the effect of these.

Fortunately the changes worked and although Brad got the start all wrong and ended lap one in 23^rd position (practice the starts Brad!!) he then worked his way forward, catching some very fast riders and finishing in 15 place right behind a group of 5 riders. With another 2 or 3 laps that would have possible been 12^th or higher as he was lapping faster than the group he had caught. He was the 1^st Honda running a standard Honda Chassis and currently the Honda bikes are struggling to beat the KTMs which have more punch out of the corners. There is a while now before the next CEV which is in October 1 week after the last MotoGP event at Valencia.

Brad is now at the Motorland Circuit (also in Aragon and not so far from Navarra) for the Red Bull Rookies Cup races that take place on Saturday and Sunday. Things so far have gone pretty well with free pactice positions of 2^nd and 4^th and a 4^th place final qualifying position just 0.58 seconds off pole. In fact less than 1 second covers the first 12 places so it's going to be the usual manic Rookies race !!

Race 1 is at 16.30 today (Saturday 28 Sept) and 15.30 tomorrow (take 1 hour off for the UK ie 15.30 and 14.30) and can be viewed live on Redbull TV

The link is http://live.redbull.tv/events/232/red-bull-rookies-cup-2013-aragon-r13/ .

Photos below show Brad on the Rookies KTM bike and the Larresport team FAB-Racing supported Honda at Navarra.

 

CEV: Aragon Race

The race day at the Motorland Circuit in Aragon Spain for Round 2 of the CEV finally saw a day without the high winds that had dogged the practice and qualifying sessions.

Brad had only been able to gain, for him, a rather lowly 26^thplace on the grid aboard the Larresport Honda and his warm-up pace was hampered by rather worn tyres and he improved only marginally over his previous times.

With the race now starting in near perfect weather conditions, his best hope was to try for a good start and get through to as high a position as possible, something that is not so easy but occasionally aided by others misfortune, crashes or machine failure. Things went partially to plan as at the end of lap one he had made 6 places, but from then on it was a lap by lap improvement that saw him at one time through to 15th place only to lose 2 places on last few laps and drop to a non points scoring 17^th. All his race lap times were better than qualifying and he set his fastest lap on the last lap trying to get back that 15^thplace. Some consolation was to be gained from the fact that he was one of the highest placed Honda machines with KTM dominating the front end of the field.

The next round is at the Albacete circuit onthe 21^stto 26^thJuneso a bit of a wait. Fortunately Albacete is a circuit not endowed with very fast straights so perhaps that will level things a little for the Hondas.

CEV: Aragon Qualifying

For Brad Ray, this CEV round at the Spanish Motorland circuit in Aragon has so far, had very mixed fortunes. The weather for both days has been dry but very windy making riding conditions very tricky at times. Both of Friday's practice sessions were difficult, 12 laps spent running in a spare motor and any following laps hampered by an intermittent ignition problem, finally located to a faulty "crash sensor" in session one and then a suspected cam chain failure on the first lap of the second session. Certainly not a good day at the office.

Saturday's official qualifying sessions saw the motor he used at the previous round back in the bike. These would be his first "all out" sessions of the weekend and the Aragon circuit is not forgiving of lack of practice and this was certainly brought home with Brad in 24th place in Q1 and, despite going quicker in Q2, it drops him to 26th on the grid for the race. he will have to be get the best start possible and go for it tomorrow to be able to keep scoring the points.

"The bike is running fine, I just have to get myself into gear. I'm not used to being that far down and struggling" he commented on the situation.

We have to look forward to see if he can pull something out of the bag for the race.

Jerez MotoGP Rookies Race

A reasonable weekend for Brad, but not exceptional with an 8^th in Race 1 and 6^th in Race 2. This still sees Brad sitting in 3^rd place in the Championship just 1 point behind second. Full report soon.

Next race is the CEV with Team Larresport at Aragon on the 24^th / 25^th /26^th of May.

Another photo from the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies at the Spanish GP at Jerez de la Frontera last weekend. Just shows how manic these races are!! Brad is #28.

Brad Relaxing!

Brad Ray enjoys one on the non racing benefits of riding in the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies !! The arm pushing Brad even closer belongs to Taz MacKenzie. Marcos Ramirez doesn't look too unhappy either.

At least Friday was sunny!!

Another photo from the CEV in Barcelona taken on the sunny Friday.

A wet weekend in Spain!!

With just a day to get back into Euro time after his successful rides in the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies in America a slightly jet lagged Brad was on the plane to Barcelona for Round 1 of the CEV at the Montmelo “Circuit de Catalunya”.   Arriving late in the day it was straight to the hotel and bed then up early to get to the circuit for the pre-event practice sessions.   In dry sunny conditions the 2 sessions went well but with no official timing there was not much to relate to but the Larresport Team he is riding with seemed pleased.  That was also the end of the dry and sunny conditions with Saturday and Sunday being almost non stop rain, so much for Sunny Spain.  

With 55 Moto3 entries the practice and 2 qualifying sessions were split into 2 groups. Despite struggling to find rear end grip, Brad finished in 7th position in the faster of the 2 sessions which meant that, when the applied the 1-1, 2-2, 3-3 etc rule used in the CEV for split sessions, he was 13^th on the grid.

The lack of grip problem really showed in the 2 races on the Sunday with over half the field falling in each race.   Hampered by poor starts Brad lost contact with the front runners each time and had to work his way back through (from 21^st at the end of lap one in the second race!!) and finally ended up with a 7^th and a 9^th in the races giving him joint 6^th place in the Championship with 8 more races to go during the season.

This Thursday it’s yet again onto a plane for the trip down to Jerez de la Frontera for the second round of the Rookies at the Spanish Grand Prix for races 3 and 4 in the series.  Let’s hope for another great result there.  

Brad prepares for CEV

This weekend sees Brad travel to Barcelona for the opener at the Circuit de Catalunya. There are 55 registered riders for the Moto3 so we shall expect some frantic qualifying and racing! Brad is racing with the Tarragona based Larre Sport team aboard one of their Honda 250 machines. He'll be keeping the familiar number 28 plate but will be sporting his new 151's leathers in team colours.

Keep checking the news section here to keep up with the news and new photos as they become available.

Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup - Calendar 2013

After an amazing opener for Brad, here are the dates for 2013:

Races
Apr 20-21, USA, Austin, Races 1-2
May 4-5, Spain, Jerez, Races 3-4
Jun 28-29, Netherlands, Assen, Races 5-6
Jul 13-14, Germany, Sachsenring, Races 7-8
Aug 24, Czech Republic, Brno, Race 9
Aug 31-Sep 1, Great Britain, Silverstone, Races 10-11
Sep 14, San Marino, Misano, Race 12
Sep 28-29, Spain, Aragon, Races 13-14

Great Start to 2013 Season

First, First, First, and First. And Brad made all of them. The first Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup race of 2013, the first ever motorcycle race at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas, first place in the race, and first race lap record. So great to hear the National Anthem played and the Union Flag displayed and see history made.

WATCH THE RACE:
http://www.redbull.com/cs/Satellite/en_INT/Red-Bull-Rookies-Cup-%7C-LIVE-STREAM/001243006290960

Photo shows how he broke away from the pack to win by 6.4 seconds, a really large margin for a Rookies race. 

Brad chats with his Red Bull mechanic

Brad explains the chatter problems he is experiencing to his Red Bull mechanic and between them they will try to find a solution but, with no track sessions before race 1, it will difficult to do anything major to help things.

Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup News

After just 1 practice session the Rookies went straight in to 2 qualifying sessions.  At the end of session 1 Brad was in 3rd place but in session 2 which saw most riders, except those at the lower end of the time sheets recording slower times, Brad was pushed down to 3rd by the one rider that went quicker.

Race 1 for the Rookies, which will be the first ever motorcycle race at the Circuit of the Americas which is already being commented by riders as one of, if not the, best circuit in the World, will start at 4.30 pm local time (10.30pm UK / 11.30pm CET).  The race can be viewed via computer at www.redbull.tv .

Brad commented:

“We need to make some changes for the race, hopefully we can get rid of the front chatter, it is worse through turns 6 and 7, the long sweeper and then the 2nd-to-last left before the start and finish. If we could get that sorted out it would make a big difference. It’s a lot of fun, a real rider’s circuit and it is not easy to learn. You keep braking too early for the corners, I am still learning it and I am sure everyone is, it will be an interesting two races this weekend."

Texas MotoGP Event

Well, just 10 minutes to go before the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup 2013 gets under way in race conditions.  New circuit, new bike, new country.   The all new COTA (Circuit of the Americas) circuit is just awesome, as they would say here in Texas.  It will certainly take some learning, 5.5 Kms long, 20 corners (9 right and 11 left), and a 1.2 Kms straight, so loads of slipstreaming.  Weather here is bright sunshine but surprisingly cool, about 21 degs.C.   Let's see how Brad and fellow Brits, Taz MacKenzie and Jordan Weaving get on.  News later.

CEV Calendar

Brad's racing in the extremely competitive Spanish Championships aboard the Larre Sport Honda Moto3 for 2013.  Here is the calendar for the season:

28/04/2013

Circuit de Catalunya

26/05/2013

MotorLand Aragón

23/06/2013

Circuito de Albacete

08/09/2013

Circuito de Albacete

22/09/2013

Circuito de Navarra

17/11/2013

Circuit de Valencia

24/11/2013

Circuito de Jerez

All New Website

It was well overdue so here it is at last!  The all new improved website for the young Lydd based rider who now takes on the wonders of the CEV!

If you aren’t familiar with this Spanish Championship, then prepare to be amazed as it is perhaps the most competitive series there is bar the actual Moto3 GP class.  There are 9 former riders from the CEV in this year’s Moto3 GP class!  Nine!!  That’s an amazing conversion rate.  Let’s hope the team bosses and prospective see Brad put on a typically awesome performance and maybe, just maybe next year…

Brad is no stranger to the CEV as he did a couple of rounds in 2011 and ’12.  In his first year he only went and put the Steve Patrickson JHA kitted Honda RS125 on the front row.  It was an amazing feat.  Let’s hope he’ll have more successful qualifying in 2013 with the Larre Sport team.

Fingers crossed