Race 2 Aragon and photos.

Race 2 and once again , and we seem to have to say it every time, the pack at the front went at it full on from lap 1. Brad went through at the end of lap one in 6^th place, at the end of lap 2 had pulled through to 4^th place, but back again to 6^th on lap 3 and losing time on the next lap and went back to 9^th which he held until lap 9. Two riders that had been running just off the leading group were able to pull up to the leaders and one got the better of a Brad putting him back to 10^th.

On lap 11 Karel Hanika's bike stopped, and on lap 12 Scott Deroue fell, giving Brad 8^th place at the finish of the 15 laps. 4 seconds behind the leading group who crossed the line with 0.67 seconds covering all 7!! I'm sure he would have liked it to be a more genuine 8^th but let's take what we can get and accept the points.

Fellow Brits, Jordan Weaving finished 14^th, and Tarran MacKenzie was just one place down from Brad but 10 seconds behind.

Brad's final Championship classification is 11^th but, with less points than he earned last year when he finished 7^th,he won't be overjoyed.

There are 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 18^th to 20^th October and 2 CEV events, Valencia on the 15^th to 17^th November, and Jerez on the 22^nd to 24^th November.

Let's see if we can make those final 3 memorable with really good results.

Photos show how close thing run.  Brad #28 can be seen in both.  Click for larger version.

Race 1 MotoGP Red Bull Rookies Cup at Motorland Circuit Aragon.

Race 1 of the 2 race weekend at the Motorland circuit in Aragon has just finished and fortunately, and rather against yesterday's predictions, it took place in dry and sunny conditions.

As pretty much usual with the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup races it was all pretty manic at the front and finally came down to a race of 7 riders at the front and saw Brad finishing in 6^th place.

I'm sure Brad would have liked better but a 6^th place ain't bad when you consider that there was only 0.355 seconds between 2^nd and 6^th place. While Karel Hanika won the race he was helped this time when Marcos Ramirez almost fell while leading on lap 9 of the 15 laps. Ramirez succeeded in recovering a massive slide that saw the bike on its side using his knee and elbow to push the bike back up. Running off track as the bike came back upright again he got in the way of the following pack. Hanika, his luck never seems to run out, was just in the right place to avoid the problems and was able to get a small distance between himself and the following riders, which he held to the end to the tune of 1.511 seconds.

Ramirez justified and compensated for his incredible save by being able to finish in 8^th place, just 6 seconds behind 7^th placed Jorge Martin.

Fellow Brits “South African” Jordan Weaving finished 13^th and Tarran MacKenzie 16^th.

Let's see if Brad can better the result in tomorrow's race.

CEV Race at Navarra

Brad had a good weekend at the CEV at the Navarra Circuit in Aragon last weekend (20^th to 22^nd September. Even with 43 entries this was the smallest entry number of the season but all the quick teams and riders were there. On paper it may not have looked so good with a 17^th place qualification and a 15^th place finish. During the practices and qualifying Brad and the team struggled with getting the changed suspension, now Ohlin the same as the rest, set well. Changes were even made between warm up and race with no possible chance to know the effect of these.

Fortunately the changes worked and although Brad got the start all wrong and ended lap one in 23^rd position (practice the starts Brad!!) he then worked his way forward, catching some very fast riders and finishing in 15 place right behind a group of 5 riders. With another 2 or 3 laps that would have possible been 12^th or higher as he was lapping faster than the group he had caught. He was the 1^st Honda running a standard Honda Chassis and currently the Honda bikes are struggling to beat the KTMs which have more punch out of the corners. There is a while now before the next CEV which is in October 1 week after the last MotoGP event at Valencia.

Brad is now at the Motorland Circuit (also in Aragon and not so far from Navarra) for the Red Bull Rookies Cup races that take place on Saturday and Sunday. Things so far have gone pretty well with free pactice positions of 2^nd and 4^th and a 4^th place final qualifying position just 0.58 seconds off pole. In fact less than 1 second covers the first 12 places so it's going to be the usual manic Rookies race !!

Race 1 is at 16.30 today (Saturday 28 Sept) and 15.30 tomorrow (take 1 hour off for the UK ie 15.30 and 14.30) and can be viewed live on Redbull TV

The link is http://live.redbull.tv/events/232/red-bull-rookies-cup-2013-aragon-r13/ .

Photos below show Brad on the Rookies KTM bike and the Larresport team FAB-Racing supported Honda at Navarra.

 

CEV: Aragon Race

The race day at the Motorland Circuit in Aragon Spain for Round 2 of the CEV finally saw a day without the high winds that had dogged the practice and qualifying sessions.

Brad had only been able to gain, for him, a rather lowly 26^thplace on the grid aboard the Larresport Honda and his warm-up pace was hampered by rather worn tyres and he improved only marginally over his previous times.

With the race now starting in near perfect weather conditions, his best hope was to try for a good start and get through to as high a position as possible, something that is not so easy but occasionally aided by others misfortune, crashes or machine failure. Things went partially to plan as at the end of lap one he had made 6 places, but from then on it was a lap by lap improvement that saw him at one time through to 15th place only to lose 2 places on last few laps and drop to a non points scoring 17^th. All his race lap times were better than qualifying and he set his fastest lap on the last lap trying to get back that 15^thplace. Some consolation was to be gained from the fact that he was one of the highest placed Honda machines with KTM dominating the front end of the field.

The next round is at the Albacete circuit onthe 21^stto 26^thJuneso a bit of a wait. Fortunately Albacete is a circuit not endowed with very fast straights so perhaps that will level things a little for the Hondas.

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.

Brad Relaxing!

Brad Ray enjoys one on the non racing benefits of riding in the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies !! The arm pushing Brad even closer belongs to Taz MacKenzie. Marcos Ramirez doesn't look too unhappy either.