Testing Times For Bradley Ray At Assen

Mechanical issues leave Bradley Ray with a DNF at the tenth round of the Motul British Motostar Championship at Assen.

After his positive outing the weekend before at the Grand Prix of San Marino, Bradley Ray headed to the TT Circuit Assen hoping to gain points to improve his current 3rd place standing in the Motul British Motostar Championship standings.

During Friday’s free practice sessions Brad was the man to beat, showing extraordinary pace topping the first practice sheet by 1.4 seconds, and 3.6 seconds quicker than the next 125cc. In the afternoon, Brad improved in time by two tenths of a second to set him up well for the first qualifying session late on Friday.

Qualifying one saw Brad improve his time by six tenths of a second and post a 1:46.414 lap to place him provisional third on the grid with one qualifying session left to push him up the grid.

Come Saturday, the mechanical gremlins showed their first signs and forced Brad to make just 2 laps of the qualifying session. The motor would not make good power and left Brad frustrated who felt he had the grip levels to knock big chunks off his time. Fortunately nobody improved their times and he stayed in third place on the grid for Sunday’s 12 lap race.

The team were unable to find any obvious problem for the loss of power despite checking everthing possible, and even replacing some components as a precaution, it had to be left to morning warm up to see if the problem was cured. Unfortunately there was no improvement and Brad pulled in after just one lap so the decision was made to replace the engine complete with a used spare motor.

‘The Bard’ made a great start and took the holeshot to lead into turn one, a lead he held to the chicane just before the end of the lap when the crank shaft seized leaving Brad to retire the EE125 down pitlane.

Brad stays in third position in the Championship standings on 116 points, with two races remaining at Silverstone and Brands Hatch GP.

A frustrated Brad said after the race: “I know I could have won that race overall, the pace it ran at wasn't that good, I'm really dissapointed but I know these things can happen”.

With only a few days to recover, Brad will now move onto the final round of the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup at Aragon, in search of his first win of the Rookies Cup season.

Photography By:

Bonnie Lane

www.bonielane.com

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