Why Brands Hatch BSB safety car was a turning point for Bradley Ray

The Brands Hatch BSB proved a tough weekend for Bradley Ray, the McAMS Yamaha rider scoring no podiums for the second time in five rounds. Improvements were made for Sunday, but a safety car in Race 3 limited his chances.

Ray had been only seventh in Race 1, but was a more encouraging in the shorter Race 2. He was challenging towards the podium battle in Race 3, as well, but a safety car for a crash for Brayden Elliott changed his fortunes, with a lack of grip after the restart seeing him drop to eighth by the finish.

“It was a bit strange,” said Bradley Ray after Race 3 at Brands Hatch, speaking to Crash.net.

“Obviously, the sprint race was good, we found something for the sprint race to go with the top-three; it’s clear they had some pace over us over the weekend, but we were able to find something there. 

“But [in Race 3] after the safety car went in I just didn’t have the grip that I needed for some reason. The tyre was quite badly worn after that compared to the races before. So, not ideal.

“I felt like we had a better bike than that, the boys gave me a better bike than eighth place, for sure. 

“So, just got to figure out what went wrong and fix it for Oulton Park.”

From the TV broadcast footage of the race, it was clear to see that Ray was struggling with rear grip on corner entry as well as on exit.

“When you lose traction, even on exit, you lose it on entry as well, which then obviously is a bit more difficult with the engine braking,” Ray explained.

“So, the bike was just a little bit more difficult to ride, I couldn’t ride it how I need to ride it.

“We’ve got to figure out what we need to improve for the second part of the race for the tyre life.”

After BSB Race 1, Ray told Crash.net that the settings that had worked at Snetterton, where he won, did not translate to Brands Hatch as he’d hoped. Following Race 3, he added that in trying to develop that Snetterton setting he and the McAMS Yamaha team “got a little bit lost” and had to revert to a more “conventional” setup for Sunday.

“We started the weekend with a similar bike to Snetterton and then tried a few things,” he said, “got a little bit lost trying to improve the bike, and then went back to something a little bit more conventional, which was better. 

“It’s just, we need to find something from mid-race onwards to try and help us. It’s clear that we’ve got the speed, we just need to work some things out, figure something out for the second part of the race. 

“But the sprint race was good, I felt like the bike was there, just for some reason after the safety car [in Race 3] it just didn’t give me that feeling again. Going to have a look, see what went wrong. 

“The boys did a mega job, can’t fault anything they’ve done this weekend, they’ve worked tirelessly to close the gap. 

“The boys in front had a bit more pace, but I felt like in that last race we could’ve gone with Max [Cook] at least and fought for a podium. 

“Got to keep our chin up, got to keep working, and going to Oulton Park, a track I like – we’ve already been there this year as well, so I think we hit the ground running there and hopefully have some solid results for the boys.”