Lydd’s Bradley Ray failed to finish the second round of the European CEV Moto2 Championship at the Catalunya circuit in Barcelona, after machine problems all weekend long hindered his progress.
Following his difficult
result in the National Superstock 600 race at Donington Park, Brad set his
sights on the second round of the European CEV Moto2 Championship in Barcelona.
During the untimed Friday
test sessions, Brad struggled with the setup of the front end of the Vyrus, and
to add to the problems he had an engine blow out, forcing the team to replace
the motor.
After the day’s
proceedings, the team worked hard during the night to improve the front
suspension of the Vyrus to give Brad more feeling. But the first qualifying
session saw Brad fail to get out on circuit due to problems with the front
suspension, and the team worked hard to replace the old setup. In Q2, Brad rode
hard to post a time of a 1:53.717, after only completing two laps of the
session.
Come race day Brad and the
team was confident of achieving a points scoring result from his grid position
of 31st. Brad made a great start from the line, and was up to 16th
position after the first sector, but by the middle of the race he had dropped
to 22nd before disaster on lap 11, when his machine stopped due to a
technical problem, forcing the 18 year old to retire from the race.
After the weekend a
frustrated Ray said: “Well that was a tough weekend, from the start we knew
that we were going to have problem with how the bike was handling, and we knew
that it wouldn’t be sorted for this race. We tried a new part on the front of
the bike for the first qualifying but it made it a lot worse, so I only did one
lap in the first qualifying. The team had to adapt the new part they made for
Q2 just for a lap time to get me on the grid for the race.
“For the race we went back
to the original setting that we ran on Friday and throughout testing, the bike
still wouldn't handle but it was ride able. I got a mega start and was 16 in the
first sector from 31st on the grid, during the race I was running in 22nd and
was catching the guy in front, but then unfortunately my bike stopped so I
had to retire from the race. It’s not been the best weekend but I’ve just got
to keep my chin up and focus on the next race.”
Brad’s next European CEV
Moto2 race will be at the Motorland Aragon circuit, where he will be ready to
improve his current form.
