Ray: We’ve got time in the pocket from Oulton Park test

Bradley Ray has played down the lap time deficit to the Bennetts British Superbike championship front-runners at the recent in-season test at Oulton Park and is confident of fighting back this weekend.

The Buildbase Suzuki rider held on to his surprise BSB championship lead last time out at Brands Hatch Indy and heads into the third round of the 2018 campaign with a 10-point advantage over defending champion Shane Byrne.

Ray is eager to strengthen his BSB title charge after a strong start to the year thanks to his impressive double victory at Donington Park and podium in race one at Brands Hatch Indy. At the in-season test at Oulton Park he ended the test down in ninth place on the combined times over one second off pace-setter Glenn Irwin for Be Wiser Ducati who claimed a clean sweep of top times.

The BSB championship leader has shrugged of the time gap to his rivals at the test and is confident he has pace in reserve with his Buildbase Suzuki at the circuit where he claimed his maiden podium in the series last year.

“We didn’t really push for lap times, we just did our own thing and worked on getting dialled into Oulton Park,” Ray said. “It’s a different circuit to Donington and Brands, so we had some tweaks to make but the bike’s already such a good package we weren’t making drastic changes.

“We put a new rear tyre in at the end of the day but it was more to just see how the bike behaved on a new tyre after we had spent the day on scrubs. We’re not stressing about being ninth on the times from the test.

“There’s probably a second in lap time to come just by pushing on when it comes to qualifying. And we know we’ve got good race pace; it’s about putting 20 or so fast laps together, not just one.”