Bradley Ray able to “creep away” in dominating race win at Snetterton
There was no answer to the controlled performance at the front of the first race of the Snetterton race weekend as Bradley Ray pulled out a gap to lead from start to finish in race one.
Bradley Ray arrived at Snetterton on good form - before the gap in the British Superbike calendar the Raceways Yamaha rider had just completed a triple of Donington Park, while his pedigree at the Norfolk track was also strong - his only other BSB triple came at Snetterton in the 2022 season.
After topping Friday practice the writing was well and truly in the wall for his rivals when Ray topped qualifying by half a second, which translated into strong race pace, as Ray explained afterwards:
“The pace has been hot all weekend, obviously qualifying was strong - I wasn’t expecting to match the qualifying lap time in the race - but especially with the temperature like it is now.
I felt good at the start, just tried to get my head down - I knew if I can get through turn one, turn two on the start then I just try to get into a rhythm, I tried to start fast and then settle into a good rhythm and mid-race I was still doing strong lap times and was able to creep away”.
- 2025 British Superbikes: Snetterton - Race Results (1)
- 2025 British Superbikes: Snetterton - Qualifying Results
Rather ominously for his rivals, who were on the limit Ray revealed he felt he still had something in reserve had he been challenged for the race one win:
“Towards the end I just settled in, I didn’t need to do too much but I felt like I had some pace left if I needed to keep pushing, so overall positive, bike was working well, maybe some small electronic changes for tomorrow but can’t be changing too much with the bike after today’s performance.”
With two races to come, beginning with the shorter sprint, the weekend feels like Ray’s to lose - he has already equalled Shane Byrne’s start to the 2014 season, having collected five wins from the six races held so far, the #28 was already planning ahead, expecting his rivals to look to play catch up for Sunday:
“Everyone is going to go back tonight, study and try and find a few tenths for tomorrow, especially if the temperature is a bit cooler - we might have to do a different strategy with the tyres, maybe not go as aggressive at the start to keep that, but yeah, it’s going to be interesting, we’ll wake up tomorrow and see what it is.”
