Bradley Ray “needed to push” to collect win number two for 2025 at Donington

Bradley Ray doubled his winning tally in BSB for 2025 with a late break in the opener at the second meeting at Donington Park.

The Raceways Yamaha rider had already impressed with pole and a new lap record, then got the best start off the line, but was cautious when it came to the capability of the Pirelli tyres over a full race distance:

“Everyone knows the tyre life through the test hasn't been too great, the temperature today has helped that, obviously with the track temperature being higher, we’ve had a little bit more tyre left towards the end, but nobody's actually done a twenty lap race run in any sessions to see how the tyre is towards the end”.

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Ray may have wanted to set the pace, but was equally content to sit in behind his rivals, adding

“I was happy, I got the holeshot, I was happy if I led, I was just going to set a pace, but Kyle passed me, then Glenn passed me straight away so, I knew they wanted to get passed and set their own pace, and, for me I was happy to sit behind, follow save the tyre there as much as I could  - I could see Glenn maybe struggling a bit with the rear tyre, and I knew I had to make a pass as soon as possible”.

Tyre issues for his rivals, while the #28 took the opportunity to save his allowed Ray to make a late break and lead over the line by 1.744s, with Irwin running wide first allowing him to seize the opportunity:

“He went a little bit wide into the Melbourne Loop, Kyle passed me and then went wide - so at that point knew at that point I needed to push for a couple of laps - I felt I had a good enough tyre to set some reasonable lap times and hope that it broke the group, or at least broke a couple of us away”.

“Hopefully the temperature stays like this for tomorrow and we know where we can improve and the lap times we can do at the start to save the tyre towards the end” Ray concluded when asked about the next races to come on Sunday beginning with the sprint, before race three.