Ray “had nothing left” after first ever BSB Brands Hatch win

Bradley Ray won his tenth race of the season in the British Superbikes opener at Brands Hatch, but race one was anything but straightforward for the Raceways rider.

The #28 again got the holeshot from pole and lead into turn one, but had constant pressure behind first from Christian Iddon, then Kyle Ryde , and finally, after getting the gap he had been looking for, being chased down by Scott Redding over the final laps.

“At the start I was just setting a rhythm and managed to pull just a little bit of a gap, Not a lot, not a lot to be like, to feel…safe.

But sort of mid race it got out a little bit more , over a second and I think at one point it was maybe 1.8 and I had this weird sort of feeling with the bike, that something was going to go wrong with it and that’s why I did two 26m 00s in a row, which led Scott to get close to me towards the end.”

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Ray explained that being out front came with it’s own set of pressures as he became fixated on his pit board and the gap, while such a long stint out front was liked by Ray to an endurance race:

“It’s a stressful race, watching the pit board every lap, not sure if the time is going to be going up or going to be coming down.

Towards the end I was watching the pit board and, to be honest, I had nothing left. I was giving it everything, especially the last sort of three or four laps. It was a long race. I first looked at my pit board properly, maybe lap twelve of the race, still had eight laps to go and I felt like I’ve done an endurance race already.

So yeah, it was a tough, tough race.”

The former champion feels that the competition he had today bodes well for a feistier set of races on Sunday, while he was happy to finally break his Brands Hatch duck, taking his first podium with a win, something he did not manage previously despite taking part in six races at the track in his title winning 2022 season:

“Scott was strong at the end Kyle was strong in the middle of the race and closing in, so I think tomorrow is going to be a big fight between all of us. A few small things to improve for tomorrow, especially the second part of the race, but happy to finally get the first podium here on the GP track and a Superbike and to make it a win is even more special.”