Motul Motostar Round 1 – Easter Weekend Brands Hatch Indy Circuit

Brad was at Brands Hatch Indy Circuit for the first round of the Motul Motostar British Championship last weekend, a round run over four days from Friday to Monday.    The Motostar class had 2 practice sessions on the Friday, the first Qualifying on the Saturday, the second on Sunday, with warm up and race on the Easter Monday.

This presented a problem to Brad who was testing with the Red Bull Rookies at the Motorland circuit at Aragon in Spain the week leading to this weekend and only finishing on Saturday.  As testing finished he and his dad drove immediately to Zaragoza Airport to fly to London Stansted and from their very “brisk” drive to Brands Hatch to arrive at just one minute before midnight.  Very fortunate before midnight as they close the circuit gates at midnight, any later, he and his dad would have been left to sleep in their car!!

This late arrival meant that Brad had missed the 2 practice sessions and 1 qualifying and he just had the second qualifying session on Sunday left to get used to the EE125 again and get a place on the grid. The EE125 is of course a 2 stroke and he had been riding the Rookies 4 stroke KTM all week.  Chalk and cheese really but Brad is one of the few riders that seems totally unfazed by this change from one to the other.

Saturday qualifying 1 had been run in bright sunny weather but Sunday turned out to be a day of rain.  Fortunately it is only necessary to set a wet qualifying time to get a place on the grid and Brad had to make sure that he did that, as it was he was fastest by 1.5 seconds so his time was the qualifying comparator.  As all the other riders had made the dry session it still meant a last row, 32nd, place on the grid.

Monday race day dawned bright and sunny. With a very short warm up of just 10 minutes getting a dry set up was almost impossible and we had to run with a “best guess”.

Unfortunately Brad fell at the end of this very short session with only 2 full flying laps completed.  He was completely OK and the bike had more or less no damage and just needed a good clean up.  A couple of super quick stops had already been made to remove blanking tape from the radiator to get the motor running at the correct temperature and all this meant that there was insufficient track time to get a handling setup.

   

The race was due to start at 3 in the afternoon but, due to several red flag incidents in previous races, it didn't start until about 4 in the afternoon and the race length was reduced to 16 laps instead of 22.

The EE125 made a very good start and Brad had taken it into 9th place by the end of 2 laps but then struggled to make further progress as he tried to close on the faster riders at the front. He was unable hold a good line on several bends with the bike running wide and suffering with front-end chatter.  Despite this he still made up more places and finally finished in 6th place overall in the race and 3rd place in the 125cc class.  Not too bad but not as good as it could have been.

At the next round, which for Brad will be round 3 of the championship at Snetterton with round 2 being missed as it clashes with the Spanish GP which is a Rookies round, we will have the 2 practice sessions, 2 qualifying sessions, and the warm up before the race and are much more confident that we can take not only win the 125 class but also take the win overall.

Thanks to all of Brad's sponsors including some new ones; Held Gloves, Forma Boots, Wiz Sliders and the 'usual suspects'; Shark, 151's, Engines Engineering, Eye Site Brighton, FAB-Racing.  A full list is on Brad's website www.brad-ray.co.uk

Thanks to Bonnie Lane for the photos

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.

Final Round Monster Energy Motostar Championship - Brands Hatch GP

The last round of the Monster Energy Motostar Championship at Brands Hatch last weekend could pretty much have ended with all the riders being flushed away on lap one. It was certainly raining as the Red lights went off but half way round lap one the heavens opened and it became almost impossible to see the track, even from pit lane. In the interests of safety the race was red flagged and then re-started as an 8 lap race after a 15 minute wait. Still in fairly heavy rain but it was at least possible to see which way to go!!

At the end of the first lap Brad came through in 5^th position behind Joe Francis, Joe Irving, and Taz MacKenzie, all on Moto3 bikes, and Andy Reid on a GP125 bike. Half way round lap 2 Reid made a successful bit for the lead but then fell almost immediately, very nearly taking Francis with him. A battle between the 2 Joe's then commenced with MacKenzie still keeping Brad at bay with both losing ground to the leaders.

At the end of lap 5 Brad was still 4^th and almost 3.50 seconds off the lead. Finally passing MacKenzie on lap 6 he completed the lap still over 3 seconds off the lead, but reduced that to under a second on the following lap!!

As the front 3 went into Paddock bend to start the last lap Francis slid off leaving Irving with a rapidly reducing lead that he held until Dingle Dell. At that point Brad decided he was not waiting any longer and bravely rode round the outside to take the lead, which he held to the line.

While the FAB-Racing EE125 is a very quick bike it is also pretty difficult to ride in the wet, so all the more credit for the overall race win, setting the fastest lap of the race (lapping at over 80mph), and leading the next GP125 Class bike home by over 22 seconds.

Next outing is at the CEV in Valencia on the 15^th to 17^th November, with 2 races at that round, and the final race of the year will be the following weekend in Jerez.

Photo shows just how wet it was.  Note the specs that are for once visible, not hidden behind his usual dark visor.  These are supplied by sports specialist optician "Eyesite Opticians" from Brighton.  Take a look at their website sometime:   www.eyesite.co.uk

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.

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.