Thursday, 23 April 2015

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

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