Podium Finish At Aragon For Bradley Ray

Bradley Ray took a third and sixth place finishes at his final Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup race at Aragon last weekend, setting a new lap record in the process.

After three successful seasons in the Red Bull Rookies, Brad travelled to the Spanish circuit in a buoyant mood, and confident he could bow out of the feeder series with a podium and more silverware, to add to his already growing collection.

And during the Friday free practice sessions, the 17 year old set blistering lap times. Finishing the first session two hundredths of a second behind session topper, Bo Bendsneyder. He went slightly quicker in the afternoon session, setting himself up well for the one and only qualifying session, late on Friday afternoon.

Qualifying saw Brad take the last slot on the front row of the grid, after posting her best lap of the weekend. The team give the youngster a good bike set up, and were confident ahead of the two races on Saturday and Sunday.

Race one saw Brad get off to an unusual bad start on board his KTM RC250, and by the end of the first lap he had his work cut out, crossing the line in seventh. But he made his way back to the leading group, after being dropped for a second time, and went in pursuit of the frontman, Joan Mir. Brad posted a new lap record of a 2:05.9 on lap 10 as he reached the back of the front three. But two laps before the end, an issue with the bike forced Brad to slow, and eventually he crossed the line to take seventh place, subject to a photo finish which saw Brad loose out by one thousandth of a second.

After the race, the team discovered water in the belly pan of the bike but they worked hard to get the machine ready for the final race of the season.

Sunday’s race two, Brad’s final Rookies Cup race would take place on a damp circuit, after rainfall during the earlier MotoGP race. And like the pervious day, Brad got of the line sluggishly and ended the first lap in sixth. But by the end of the eighth lap, he had worked his way into a podium position in tricky conditions. Ray rode well and took the flag in third place, ending his glorious Rookies Cup career with silverware. 

The boy done good…

After race two a jubilant Brad said: “Not a good start at all and it took a while to get past the guys in the early laps. Once I did get into third I could see the leaders ahead and I was closing the gap a bit but I realised that it just wasn't happening quick enough and knew that I had to settle for third rather than have something silly happen.”

With only a week to regroup, Brad now has his focus turned to Silverstone and the penultimate round of the Motul British Motostar Championship next weekend. 

Photography By: 

Bonnie Lane

Testing Times For Bradley Ray At Assen

Mechanical issues leave Bradley Ray with a DNF at the tenth round of the Motul British Motostar Championship at Assen.

After his positive outing the weekend before at the Grand Prix of San Marino, Bradley Ray headed to the TT Circuit Assen hoping to gain points to improve his current 3rd place standing in the Motul British Motostar Championship standings.

During Friday’s free practice sessions Brad was the man to beat, showing extraordinary pace topping the first practice sheet by 1.4 seconds, and 3.6 seconds quicker than the next 125cc. In the afternoon, Brad improved in time by two tenths of a second to set him up well for the first qualifying session late on Friday.

Qualifying one saw Brad improve his time by six tenths of a second and post a 1:46.414 lap to place him provisional third on the grid with one qualifying session left to push him up the grid.

Come Saturday, the mechanical gremlins showed their first signs and forced Brad to make just 2 laps of the qualifying session. The motor would not make good power and left Brad frustrated who felt he had the grip levels to knock big chunks off his time. Fortunately nobody improved their times and he stayed in third place on the grid for Sunday’s 12 lap race.

The team were unable to find any obvious problem for the loss of power despite checking everthing possible, and even replacing some components as a precaution, it had to be left to morning warm up to see if the problem was cured. Unfortunately there was no improvement and Brad pulled in after just one lap so the decision was made to replace the engine complete with a used spare motor.

‘The Bard’ made a great start and took the holeshot to lead into turn one, a lead he held to the chicane just before the end of the lap when the crank shaft seized leaving Brad to retire the EE125 down pitlane.

Brad stays in third position in the Championship standings on 116 points, with two races remaining at Silverstone and Brands Hatch GP.

A frustrated Brad said after the race: “I know I could have won that race overall, the pace it ran at wasn't that good, I'm really dissapointed but I know these things can happen”.

With only a few days to recover, Brad will now move onto the final round of the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup at Aragon, in search of his first win of the Rookies Cup season.

Photography By:

Bonnie Lane

www.bonielane.com