Bradley Ray finished the sixth round of the Pirelli
National Superstock 600 championship in 10th position, after a
battling weekend North of the border.
Following the news that the Vyrus Racing
Team would not be competing at the third round of the European Moto2 CEV
Championship at Aragon due to machine issues that the team were ironing out,
Brad decided he wanted to keep bike fit and made his way north, and to the
Knockhill Circuit in Fife, where he turned his attention to the sixth round of
the Pirelli National Superstock 600 Championship.
And from the off Brad worked hard with his
team to find the right setup around the tight and twisty Scottish track. After
making changes to the suspension, Brad improved his time by four tenths of a
second, from the free practice session to place him provisionally 13th
on the grid.
But come Saturday, the second qualifying
session was cancelled altogether after heavy overnight rain forced an issue with
the track surface meaning a delay in proceedings, which forced the organisers
to cancelled the final qualifying for the Superstock 600’s. Meaning Brad would
line up on the grid for Sunday’s race in 13th place.
From the lights Brad got a good start and
ran in seventh place after the first few laps, but was then embroiled in a
battle with Chrissy Rouse. On lap 10 he was pushed wide at the final corner by
an ambitious pass from Rouse, which pushed Brad wide. But he then regroup, and
as the race was stopped on the 14th lap due to rain, Brad had worked
his way back up to 10th place.
After the race a frustrated Ray said: “Its
was my first time round Knockhill on a 600 this weekend, and from the first
free practice I wasn’t too far off the pace, I was only about nine tenths of a
second behind the quickest man, and from that it gave me confidence ahead of
qualifying. I qualified 13th, after really digging in deep on my
last lap. We made a few changes before the second qualifying but then the
weather meant we couldn’t go out, so I’d start 13th for the race.
“I got a good start and I was up to seventh
at one point, until Chrissy Rouse hit me going into the final hairpin and that
run me wide, which meant I went back to about 12th, I worked my way
back through the pack but then the rain came and they red flagged the race.
“Its’ been a good weekend all in all, but I
can’t wait for Brands Hatch now.”
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