Battling Weekend In Misano

Seventh place for Bradley at the 12th round of the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup after a tough weekend at the Grand Prix of San Marino

Forever relaxed before the race

After his dominant weekend at round nine of the Motul British Motostar Championship at Donington Park, Bradley “The Milky Bar Kid” Ray headed into the penultimate round of the Red Bull Rookies Cup in high spirits and confident of a good result, to boost his already high status.

Throughout Friday the weather caused issues for most of the riders, including Brad who worked with his team on the set up of his Red Bull KTM RC250 during the first two free practice sessions, run with constant rain washing over the circuit on the Adriatic coast. He used both sessions to find grip on the very wet track, and learn where he could push hard.

The weather didn't dampen the spirits of Ray, who continued to work hard with set up ahead of the Friday afternoon qualifying session. At one point the 17 year old sat in pole position but was finally pushed back into third after a minor slide off lost him some laps. He was able to re-mount to rejoin the session, too late to make any improvement on his time as the session was red flagged on the following lap, leaving Brad in 5th place and the middle of the second row for the race.

Brad (28) fights hard to get to the front...

Under sunny skies on Saturday, the 12th round of the Red Bull Rookies Cup got under way and, after a good start, Brad was running with the front group after the first couple of a laps. After some laps Brad noticed some issues with his bike causing a lack of speed and acceleration and, with no dry track time throughout the weekend, his suspension set up wasn’t so good but he fought hard till the end of the race to take the flag in 7th position.

After the race a seized chain was found to be the cause of the lack of performance and with the rear wheel actually difficult to turn, it was fortunate that it hadn't broken.

Brad said: “I just couldn't hold them on the straights, and this time, unlike Silverstone, the bike setting wasn't right so I couldn't make up for it all in the corners. I did try.”

Brad still sits fourth in the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup standings on 127 points, and will now move onto round ten of the Motul British Motostar Championship, at the TT Circuit Assen in Holland this weekend. 

Photography By: 

Bonnie Lane

Words: 

Michael Burton

Double Delight At Donington For Bradley Ray

Bradley ‘The Milky Bar Kid’ Ray takes two wins and sets a new lap record

After the frustration of not making the podium at his home Grand Prix the previous weekend at Silverstone, Lydd’s Bradley Ray didn’t have long to dust himself down and head to round nine of the Motul British Motostar Championship at the famous Donington Park circuit.

After a change to the normal schedule due to the cancellation of the round eight race of the Championship at Cadwell Park, the weekend saw an extra ten minutes on each free practice and qualifying session with the replacement race on Saturday afternoon using the grid positions achieved at Cadwell Park.  On the morning of the first free practice session the weather was overcast, but that didn’t dampen the spirits of Brad, who in free practice one topped the 125cc class by half a second.

After fitting a “refreshed” engine during the break between sessions to give Brad more power, he dipped under the lap record of the 2.4-mile circuit by a full second, posting a 1:38.074 lap, just a tenth of a second behind session topper and the 250cc Moto3 of Joe Irving.

During qualifying on Saturday morning for Sunday’s race, Brad destroyed the lap record once again, posting a 1.37.9 lap, once again just fractionally down on Irving's 250cc Moto3 time.

The postponed Saturday afternoon “Cadwell”  race start saw Brad take the hole shot that shortly after developed into a battle with the hard charging Irving and, despite setting a new 125cc lap record at 1:37.5 on lap nine and challenging for the lead many times, Brad took the flag in second position just 0.3 seconds behind Irving  but more importantly taking the top step of the 125 podium.

With the sun shining on the circuit for the eight minute warm up on Sunday Brad finished feeling confident of taking the 125cc double win.  At the start of the mid afternoon race with the sun still shining, Brad once again had a great start but had to settle for a great second place battle with Jordon Weaving as race leader Joe Irving took off into the distance before crashing heavily at the Melboune Loop on lap eight.  Getting the better of Weaving Brad ‘The Bard’ pulled out a comfortable three and a half second lead to cross the line first overall and first 125cc, a great Donington Park double.  

After the race a delighted Brad said: “Saturday’s race was quite tough, I tried to get the overall win, but missed out and took the 125 win, so that was pretty good. Today, Joe (Irving) pulled away so I concentrated on the 125 win, but then Joe crashed and I dropped Jordan by three seconds and just kept the gap till the end, so it was a good weekend.”

Brad now moves into third place of the Motul British Motostar 125GP Championship on 116 points, only 13 behind second place man Taz Taylor with three rounds of the Championship remaining.

Brad’s busy schedule doesn’t stop here, with a turn round of just one week before he jets off to the Grand Prix of San Marino for round 12 of the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup, a round in which he is looking ahead too. “Its going to be a tough weekend, there is a nice long straight and with the speed issues I have its going to make for a interesting race.” 

Photography By: 

Bonnie Lane

Words: 

Michael Burton

MBSportsMedia

Solid Home Round For Bradley Ray At Silverstone

Bradley Ray achieved fourth and fifth place finishes in the two Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup races this weekend at the Northamptonshire circuit, and moves up to fourth place in the Championship standings after dealing with a high-pressure home round.

Getting in the zone

The weekend started well for Brad after dialing himself in well on the Red Bull KTM RC250, he finished the second free practice in second position behind Jorge Martin, after a rain shower interrupted session, improving on his time set in the morning.

Qualifying didn’t go to plan for the young Kent man on Friday afternoon, after discovering problems with the front suspension Brad could only manage a time good enough to place himself in eighth position for Saturday and Sunday’s races. During the evening the team sat down and made minor changes to the machine to give Brad more confidence with the suspension ahead of race 1.

Before the start of race one on Saturday dark clouds loomed over the 3.6 mile circuit. Fortunately the weather held off for the start of the race and Brad got off to a good start, finishing the first lap in 7^th place and quickly chasing down the leading group. After a short burst of rain the race was controversially stopped on lap 5 after Brad had moved his way up to third position.

The race was restarted to run over just five laps on a dry circuit, leaving Brad with a tough job starting once again from eighth. Straight away Brad got his head down and had moved up to fourth place after the first lap. With two laps to go Brad had worked his way to second, but after battling it out on the last lap he lost out on a podium finish, crossing the line in fifth.

Under sunny skies on Sunday, Brad headed out for his last race of the weekend in high spirits and confident of taking a trophy home. Once again he made a good start, moving up into seventh by the end of the opening lap. The ‘Milky Bar Kid’ continued to make forward progress, catching the leading group where positions continually changed and saw Brad entered the final lap holding second place, but once again he lost out in the battle for the podium to Bo Bendsneyder in the final sequence of corners, taking the flag in fourth place.

Brad heads Ollie Simpson & Oscar Gutierrez

Speaking after race two, a frustrated Brad said: “ I did everything I could again, I thought I was in the right place on the last lap, chasing Manzi down to Brooklands in his slipstream but then I got slipstreamed had a moment on the brakes and just missed out. Still I tried as hard as I could and it was another great race.”

The youngster now moves up to fourth place in the Rookies Championship standings on 118 points, and will now move onto the ninth round of the Motul British Motostar Championship at Donington Park this weekend, where Brad will complete two races after the cancelled race at Cadwell Park.

Photography By:

Bonnie Lane

Words By: 

Michael Burton