It was a successful weekend for Bradley Ray as he
juggled two different bikes at Brands Hatch, taking two second place finishes
in the Hel British Motostar 125 Championship.
Brad would step in for Cameron Horsman
onboard the EE125 with the 14 year old out in Spain on Red Bull MotoGP Rookies
Cup qualifying school duty, meaning the 18 year old would be reunited with his
trusty friend. The Lydd man would also compete on the Motobreakers Kawasaki ZX-R
600 in the National Superstock 600 Championship.
Brad started the weekend well onboard the
600 finishing a very wet free practice in second place. But straight after he
had to re adjust instantly heading out on the 2 stroke 125, an issue that Brad
would work hard to cure all weekend long.
Engine issues forced Brad to complete only
6 laps on the EE125, meaning the team had to work hard to replace the engine
before the first qualifying session on Friday afternoon.
First qualifying in the National Superstock
600 championship would see Brad end the session in 15th, eventually
working his way up to fifth in second qualifying, leaving him on the second row
of the grid for Sunday’s race.
Qualifying for the Motostar races would
make for interesting reading for the ‘Bard.’ Due to an accident in the first
qualifying on Friday the session would be cancelled, meaning Saturday’s one and
only session before the 10-lap sprint race, would be key.
Brad felt more at home on the 125 machine,
and on a drying circuit the Lydd man ended the session in eighth place, only
1.3 seconds off pole man Mike Brouwers on a Moto3 machine.
Saturday’s sprint race saw Brad get a great
leap from the line and ran as the first 125, until lap three when Taz Taylor
came past and then found his way into the lead. Brad battled in a gaggle of
Moto3 bikes, fighting hard to keep his position of 12th place in the
overall race, and second 125.
Brad’s first race on Sunday would be on the
600, as the lights went out he got a bad start and lost two places on the first
lap. After a multi bike crash the race was red flagged, and restarted with a
6-lap dash. Brad got a great start and battled hard with Ross Tyman and Tom
Ward, eventually crossing the line in 6th place.
It was then a mad dash to the grid straight
after to ride in the final Motostar race of the season. Brad got a good start
after starting from 13th on the grid, he worked his way through the
field and after the third lap he was sitting in 11th place, and 2nd
125. Brad was then embroiled in a battle with Brian Slooten, but he fought hard
to keep the Moto3 man behind him, taking the flag in eighth place, and second
125.
After the weekend, a tired Ray said: “This
weekend has been really good. We had really good pace with the Stock 600 in
both the wet and dry, I was feeling really good about the race. I wanted to get
away with the front group in the restart, but I got cut up by another rider,
and that let a couple of other through, we did have the pace to run with Taz (Mackenzie)
and the others but it just wasn’t to be.
“It’s been a little bit tough jumping from
bike to bike this weekend, it’s been hard jumping from the 600 to the 125
because of the gearing and such like, but the last few laps of the 125 race I
didn’t get the lap time I wanted but I’m really happy to leave here with two
trophies. I need to thank everyone involved this weekend because without them
it would have been really hard.”
