Busy Brad Ray Takes Double Brands Hatch Podium

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 15^th, 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 12^th 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 6^th 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 13^th on the grid, he worked his way through the field and after the third lap he was sitting in 11^th place, and 2^nd 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.”