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
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