Lydd’s Bradley Ray
took a second place finish at Oulton Park this weekend, in the Pirelli National
Superstock 600 championship on board the Motobreakers Kawasaki.
After his
fantastic result in his first CEV outing of the season, Brad travelled to Cheshire in high hopes of
improving his luck from his last race on the Motobreakers Superstock 600.
And from
the off Brad started the weekend well, ending the first free practice session
in 10th place, only nine tenths of a second behind the first place
man, Mason Law.
But
during the break between sessions the weather took a turn for the worse with the rain pouring down over
the 2.6 mile circuit. But that didn’t stop Brad finishing the first qualifying
session in 13th.
But
Sunday saw the sun dry the circuit out after overnight rain drenching the
Cheshire tarmac. Brad improved his time by two seconds in the final qualifying
session, meaning he would start Monday’s race in 6th place on the
grid, even after suffering from arm pump.
Brad made a great start and was immediately running with
the front group and staying there for the first few laps.
He then made his move and overtook Joe Francis into the final corner,
but then the lap later, an incident involving Francis and Tarran Mackenzie
pushed Brad up to second place, and he then started to chase down the race
leader Mason Law.
Brad
worked hard to catch Law, cutting the gap down from 1.5 second to under half a
second in one lap, and put in a new lap record in the process. Until Law was
given the hurry up by his team, subsequently taking the lap record away from
Brad and took the flag in first, leaving Brad to take a creditable second
place, in only his second race on the Superstock 600 machine.
Dad Kev cheers Brad across the line...
After the
weekend, an ecstatic Ray said: “The start of the weekend I was more or less on
the back foot, we were on the new 2014 Kawasaki, compared to Brands which was
the 2013 model. So the free practice session I was working hard on trying to
find a good setup ahead of qualifying.
“I went
out on my own in qualifying two and put the lap times in on my way to get a
good feel ahead of the race, and it worked really well and I ended up 6th
for the race start.
“The
start went really well and I got away with the front group, but the first three
pulled away a little until Taz and Joe had a little collision which moved me up
to second, and I kept that gap between myself and Joe until the flag. But then
as I started to chase Mason, arm pump crept in and I started to make a few
mistakes, but I’m over the moon with second place.
“Just a
massive thank you to everyone who’s helped me out this weekend, Dad and all my
family, Shaun and all the Motobreakers team, 100% Suspension, just everyone who
helps me out and supports me.”
