Silverware for Ray At Oulton Park

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 10^th 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 13^th.

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 6^th 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 6^th 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.”