Ray leading light with World Superbike wildcard
Bradley Ray says he can take pride from his World Superbike debut performances with his British Superbike-specification Buildbase Suzuki at Donington Park as his attention sharpens on the national series.
Ray stormed to a maiden double victory at the British circuit earlier in the year when the track hosted the 2018 BSB opener and while the 21-year-old went into his WorldSBK debut somewhat handicapped with the standard electronics used in BSB he impressed with a double points finish.
Bradley Ray says he can take pride from his World Superbike debut performances with his British Superbike-specification Buildbase Suzuki at Donington Park as his attention sharpens on the national series.
Ray stormed to a maiden double victory at the British circuit earlier in the year when the track hosted the 2018 BSB opener and while the 21-year-old went into his WorldSBK debut somewhat handicapped with the standard electronics used in BSB he impressed with a double points finish.
The British rider felt it was unrealistic to compare his pace to the front-runners on the international stage but coupled with significant pace improvements compared to his double win at the track earlier this year he believes it was a successful World Superbike debut.
“We had a really enjoyable and also productive weekend,” Ray said. “Honestly, the important thing for us was more track time and to really treat the whole thing as a big test first and foremost.
“We couldn’t compare ourselves to the World Superbike teams, we had to compare our performance to when we were last at Donington for the opening BSB round, and we can safely say we’ve found some real improvements.
“That said, I’d be lying if I said we didn’t also want to give a good account of ourselves and show what we could do against the best superbike riders and teams in the world, and given our bike is built to a different specification, I think we can be really happy with two point-scoring finishes.”
Ray is already being considered an option in World Superbikes for 2019 if he can continue his strong start to the current BSB championship. The 21-year-old is second in the riders’ championship three rounds in the campaign and just 14 points off early leader Leon Haslam.
The 21-year-old recently enjoyed a private test in Japan for Suzuki, tipped as he star for the future by the Japanese manufacturer, who is also considering a potential full-time return to World Superbikes in 2019 having left the series at the end of 2016 when Crescent Racing switched to running Yamaha’s factory squad.
