Bradley Ray takes first 2026 win in “tough” Snetterton BSB race one

Bradley Ray was back to winning ways, translating he record breaking qualifying pace to a race victory in BSB race one at Snetterton.

The McAMS Yamaha rider arrives at the Norwich track with great pedigree, having won all three races at Snetterton last season, emulating the triple he pulled off in his 2022 title winning year.

The number 28 did not have everything his way in race trim, followed by a group of five, becoming six with Scott Redding joining, as Max Cook sat directly behind applying pressure in the opening laps before his technical issue took him out of the race.

Ray, speaking to British Superbikes after the race, told of the pressure from his rivals, calling the pace and chase down as ‘tough’:

“It was tough. Got a good start and sort of tried to push early on in the first part of the race, but Max was keeping me really honest at the start.

Was setting reasonable lap times at the start, but I had plus zero and Max tried a few times into T1.

I could see on the board I had ‘G5’ so I knew there was a group of us, battling - Max come through and set quite a good pace to be honest, but I could see, sort of, at some point, he dropped a couple of tenths a lap and that was my time to try and get back through, ‘cause it’s easy enough - It’s easy to be second place and then with two laps be back in fifth, then it’s hard to get back through."

Once back in front, there was no let up, with Redding moving into the same group as the lead duo over the closing stages, taking over in applying the pressure after Cook’s exit, as Ray explained:

“So I tried to attack early. Get into a rhythm. I could see my board when I was pushing on more - my lap time was coming down, but my board was coming down as well - so I knew Scott had the dog in him and wanted to fight on that last lap.”

Ray was ready for the last lap battle, but it was not to be, with a second red flag for Christian Iddon’s blow up denying the duo:

“It would have been a ding-dong, that’s for sure. Super happy with the win for the boys. It was a tough race, but looking forward to tomorrow already.”

Ray is set to start the sprint tomorrow from second on the grid, with Redding ahead on pole position, and Cook completing the front row.