Bradley Ray Earns Silverstone Moto2 Wildcard

Lydd teenager Bradley Ray will make his Grand Prix debut at the Silverstone MotoGP, after being granted a wildcard into the British Moto2GP onboard an FTR.  After careful negotiations between Steve Bones and Roger Keys, Brad’s manager, the former owner of the FTR factory has agreed to loan his FTR machine for use at this year’s race. This means that Brad will be the only rider on the Moto2 grid with the British based chassis underneath him, in the British Grand Prix. Ray, who this year has been competing on board the factory Vyrus Moto2 machine in the European CEV Moto2 Championship and also racing in the National Superstock 600 Championship in the UK with the Motobreakers team, achieving a podium in only his second race onboard the latter Kawasaki ZXR-600, but now he has his sights set on making a name for himself on the world stage. Silverstone is a circuit that the 18-year-old Ray has enjoyed much success at, and with the eyes of the world watching his first appearance in the Moto2GP class, and possibly the only wildcard on the grid, expect the youngster to ride with no fear. A jubilant Ray said after receiving the news of his wildcard: “I’m so happy to be given this opportunity to do my first wildcard at my home Grand Prix at Silverstone. For this I need to say a massive thank you to everyone from FTR and Steve Bones who have made this possible for me. “I’ve been riding my Vyrus Moto2 in the European CEV Moto2 Championship so I have the bigger bike experience, but it’s going to be a big step and a big experience at the GP, but I know the track really well and I’m looking forward to finding a good setup on the FTR Moto2.” The team is now set on raising funds for event, and any type of donation is greatly received. You can donate through the website, www.thefabcrowd.co.uk, which will help fund the weekend, making you play a huge part in what is set to be an exciting debut in the Moto2GP class for Brad.

Bradley Ray To Ride For The Vyrus Factory

Lydd’s Brad Ray is ready to do battle in the FIM CEV Moto2 European Championship on board a brand new machine after signing for the Vyrus Factory Race Team.

After turning many heads in a successful 2014 season, the 17 year old now steps up onto the 600cc machine in the search of the 2015 European Moto2 title.

‘The Bard” completed a very positive two day test late on in 2014 for the Vyrus Factory Team at the Valencia Ricardo Tormo circuit, in which he impressed the bosses of the team after regularly chipping away at his times on his first outing on a 600cc machine.

Brad completed his hectic 2014 calendar with a fourth in the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup with three podiums along the way, third place in the Motul British Motostar 125cc Championship after many dominant performances throughout the season, and 11^th in the CEV Moto3 Championship despite missing some rounds in both the Motostar and CEV Championships due to date clashes.

All smiles ahead of the new season...

Vyrus are privately an exclusive motorcycle brand creating exciting and beautiful machines to be ridden on the road, but have now turned their attentions to fielding a racing machine.

After months of research and development, and many days of testing, the team are now ready to move forward and launch an attack on the Moto2 European Championship with the radical Vyrus machine.

A jubilant Brad said after signing for the team: “This is a really exciting project and I can't wait to race and help develop the Vyrus with the team and their sponsors for the up and coming season on their Moto2 bike.

“This is a great opportunity for me and I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone involved in setting up this project.”

Brad’s first official test on the Vyrus Factory machine will be run on the 20th/21st/22nd of February at the Cartagena circuit in Spain. 

Photography By: 

Bonnie Lane & Andrea Bardi

PaddockChatter Interview

Brad recently did an interview with PaddockChatter about 2014.  Here it is in full:

In the end Brad Ray’s ninth place finish at the third round of the Spanish CEV championship at Aragon didn’t tell the full story of his efforts. The recently turned 17-year old rode through the field to compete in a manic nine-rider battle for third place. At one point he had a debut CEV podium within his grasp but a small mistake pushed him back to ninth, just 0.8 seconds from third.

It has been a promising season so far for the young British hopeful. Riding for the KRP set up, he has stepped up to challenge established names in the series on factory bikes. Like 2013, the Kent-based rider is also competing on three fronts  – the CEV, Red Bull Rookies series and Motostar British championship events.

To show he is developing a level of consistency Ray was involved in a similar scrap, this time for second place, involving six riders in Le Mans, the first time the series held a round outside Spain three weeks ago. Again some small mistakes just prevented him from finishing higher than seventh but the experience of racing with the cosmopolitan Moto3 field on alternative machinery is standing him in good stead. As he says, “we’re up at the front all the time now.”

We caught up with Brad to talk briefly about his experiences in the CEV, his FTR KTM and the Red Bull Rookies series.

First of all Brad, you finished ninth in the Moto3 CEV race at Aragon on Sunday, yet you were just 0.8 seconds from standing on the podium. Are you happy with that?
I’m very happy with that. We were up with the front bunch and fighting for the podium which was really good. I got up to third at one point but you’re always at 110 percent through the race and I made a few little mistakes and dropped back. It’s so close. If you make one mistake you drop back two or three places. It was very clean. It’s good riding with other people from around the world because you then know how they ride, where they’re fast, where they’re not. There are so many fast riders in there like Migno and Rodrigo. They’re all fast and they’re all on factory bikes.

In some ways Aragon was similar to the race in Le Mans. You fought through the pack to join a group with the leading riders…
Le Mans was a good race for us because nobody had been there, it was a new track for everyone. We thought it’d be a hit or miss round in terms of being up at the front but we proved it wasn’t and we’re up at the front all the time now.

You’re riding the FTR KTM machine this year, a bike none of the other top riders are using. How are you finding it?
The FTR KTM is a really good bike. We’re the only people riding it and you obviously have to do your own data and work around problems on your own. Whereas if we were on a factory KTM we would go to a bigger team, look at their data and compare it to ours. But we’re on our own and we have to do it ourselves and make do. It’s a really good chassis. It takes a while to set it up but when it’s set up it’s really smooth, handles really well and does what you want it to do.

Does that go some way to explaining why you seem to come strong on Sunday afternoon?
Yeah, definitely. If you haven’t got as fast an engine as the front boys you can make it up in the corners. If they are five or six ks quicker down the straight then you have to brake ten or fifteen metres later to catch them back up again. But if you have a fast bike with good handling then you’re winning.

Does it take you some time to adapt to the FTR chassis after you have been riding the KTM machine in the Red Bull Rookies series?
It’s not too bad. It is a bit different. The KTM has a different suspension and different chassis. It’s got a trail frame, not a solid frame. It doesn’t take too long, maybe three or four laps to get back to your usual bike. But you get back on and you think, ‘I’m on an FTR KTM’ and then you go back to the Red Bull KTM. You just gel with it.

Do you feel you would benefit from longer races in the series?
Definitely. If you’re only doing ten laps if the CEV was only a ten lap race and you move onto GPs next year and do 26 laps then you’re definitely going to be knackered. You’ve got to do long distance races to be prepared for the future races definitely.

How do you feel the Rookies series has been going so far? You’re twelfth in the championship but that doesn’t really reflect how quick you have been this year.
The first two races in Jerez were sort of a misunderstanding through suspension with the suspension guys. So we sat down when we first got to Mugello with the suspension people, had a really good talk and found a solution. It worked for the race definitely. I was fighting for the podium position when the gear shifter bolt fell out so I had to retire from the race, which was a bummer.

How often does that happen?
Not very often, no [laughs].

A few of the CEV riders have wildcards lined up. Is there any chance of you getting one in 2014?
It would be nice to do the British Grand Prix but obviously we can’t do a wild card because we’re there with Red Bull, which is a shame. We asked Red Bull but they said it was a no-no as you can’t really do two races in one weekend.

What’s next for you?
I’m at Snetterton this weekend for the BSB, then Catalunya for the CEV. Last year was the first time back there for four years when I rode there on a Metrakit 80cc. On the Friday we had two dry sessions, then the rest of the weekend was wet. It’s going to be a difficult one because it’ll be the first time there on the KTM FTR. We’ll just try to get a good base setting and then work from that.

Thanks for your time Brad and good luck this weekend.

Thank you. Catch you later.

Our thanks go to Neil at PaddockChatter for letting us use this story, Go check out their website for a wealth of news and views on bike racing.

Brad Ray Plans For 2014

2014 is going to be one of the busiest years ever for Brad.  With the 8 round, 14 race Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup series, most rounds of the Motul Motostar British Championship event at BSB, riding for FAB-Racing, and several of the CEV Spanish National Championship rounds riding for KRP, he will hardly be off a race bike!

The Rookies bike is a standard KTM, the CEV bike is an FTR-KTM, both 4 stroke Moto3 bikes.   The Motostar bike, an EE125, is a totally different bike altogether.   A disc valve 2 stroke of the type that competed for many years in GP until the arrival of the Moto3 class, certainly not an easy bike to ride with it's very narrow power band.  Young Bradley, 16 years of age now, is one of the few riders that can go from one to the other with apparent ease.

 

As this is being written Brad has already completed a 3 day test session at the Almeria Circuit, where he rode 3 different bikes testing chassis set-ups for FTR, a 2 day pre-event test session for the first round of CEV at the Jerez Circuit (both circuits located in Southern Spain), the first round of CEV over 3 days, and is now at Aragon with the Rookies for a 3 day test. 

The Round 1 CEV at Jerez was difficult for Brad, the KRP team had several problems to contend with on the new to them FTR-KTM.   None of the problems were the team's fault, it was a case of coming up against problems that teams running the motor last year were already aware of.  They won't happen again as team boss Mark Keen has already taken measures to ensure they can't re-occur.

One of the problems was the cause of Brad's not so good qualifying that gained him only a  21^st place on the grid, and the other caused the bike to stall on race 1 just as the red start lights were due to change.   Fortunately all the riders behind him, there are 44 on the Grid so at least 20, succeeded in missing him.   Fortunately this was a 2 race event.

Race 2 was altogether more satisfying.   Starting from 21^st on the grid, Brad was able to work his way through the pack and eventually finished a very commendable 13^th.  It has to be realised that the level at CEV is extremely close to Grand Prix and is recognised as the final step, so it not so simple to get past riders that are also very fast.   It is often the case at CEV, where riders come from many countries, there are more entered riders than places on the grid and even very fast riders sometimes don't qualify to race.

For the Motul Motostar Round 1 on the Brands Hatch Indy Circuit this Easter it's going to also be “interesting”.   He will finish testing at Aragon with the Rookies on Saturday, fly back to the UK that evening, go straight to Brands Hatch having missed 2 practice sessions on the Friday and 1 qualifying on the Saturday, and take part in Q2 on the Sunday to qualify for the race on Monday!!   Remember he won't have ridden that bike since his win last October and it is totally different to the Rookies bike he is riding at Aragon.   Let's see how it goes.

Brad also had his pre-season eye check from the sports vision experts Eye Site in Brighton.  He has a clean bill of health and some new Oakley glasses and shades courtesy of Jim Green and the staff.

Back in the Red Bull MotoGP Cup again in 2014

Although the races at the MotoGP event in Aragon last weekend gave results that were not too great for Brad, with a 6^th and 8^th positions, everything finished on a high as he was told just after race 2 that he was invited to ride in the MotoGP Red Bull Rookies Cup again next year. I don't think he took too long to say YES !!! With Red Bull showing their confidence in him Brad will, for sure, be pushing very hard for wins, podiums, and the overall Championship.

As mentioned in the previous blog there are just 3 more races to do before the end of the season, the last round of the Monster Energy Motostar Championship at Brands Hatch on the GP circuit in October, and the last 2 rounds of the CEV, Valencia and Jerez in November.

At Brands he will be riding the Engines Engineering EE125 and the Team Larresport NSF250R Moto3 at the Spanish circuits both of which he is familiar with. He will be looking forward to good results at all 3 events, although the Honda Moto3 bikes are having a hard time against the GP spec KTM bikes running in the CEV this year.

The photos attached show how close the Rookies races always are.  Brad is #28.

CEV: Aragon Qualifying

For Brad Ray, this CEV round at the Spanish Motorland circuit in Aragon has so far, had very mixed fortunes. The weather for both days has been dry but very windy making riding conditions very tricky at times. Both of Friday's practice sessions were difficult, 12 laps spent running in a spare motor and any following laps hampered by an intermittent ignition problem, finally located to a faulty "crash sensor" in session one and then a suspected cam chain failure on the first lap of the second session. Certainly not a good day at the office.

Saturday's official qualifying sessions saw the motor he used at the previous round back in the bike. These would be his first "all out" sessions of the weekend and the Aragon circuit is not forgiving of lack of practice and this was certainly brought home with Brad in 24th place in Q1 and, despite going quicker in Q2, it drops him to 26th on the grid for the race. he will have to be get the best start possible and go for it tomorrow to be able to keep scoring the points.

"The bike is running fine, I just have to get myself into gear. I'm not used to being that far down and struggling" he commented on the situation.

We have to look forward to see if he can pull something out of the bag for the race.

Jerez MotoGP Rookies Race

A reasonable weekend for Brad, but not exceptional with an 8^th in Race 1 and 6^th in Race 2. This still sees Brad sitting in 3^rd place in the Championship just 1 point behind second. Full report soon.

Next race is the CEV with Team Larresport at Aragon on the 24^th / 25^th /26^th of May.

Another photo from the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies at the Spanish GP at Jerez de la Frontera last weekend. Just shows how manic these races are!! Brad is #28.