Ray clinches top 10 finishes

Motorsport

British Superbike rookie Bradley Ray took two more top-10 finishes in the championship on Sunday.

The young Suzuki rider from Lydd, qualified fifth during Saturday’s qualifying practice before finishing sixth and 10th in the races at Assen, the penultimate round of the British Superbike Championship.

Difficult weather conditions made racing tricky on Friday and Saturday, with little dry track time to test settings for the races on Sunday.

This didn’t hinder Ray too much, his fifth place in final qualifying placed him in the middle of row two for the first of two races on Sunday. This was his best qualifying position in BSB.

Race one saw the 20-year-old battle at the front from the start. He put hard moves on his opponents, including Dan Linfoot, a double race winner in 2017.

Ray became detached from the leading group and became engaged in a battle with former champion Josh Brookes. He followed the faster Brookes, who helped him back up to the leading four, making it a battle of six for the win.

Despite being fifth on the last lap, Ray was forced back to sixth – still a respectable result for someone who hadn’t been to Assen on a Superbike before – Leon Haslam took the win.

In race two, the Buildbase Suzuki rider had to come from row three.

After getting a brilliant start, Ray was caught up in an incident between BMW riders Christian Iddon and Peter Hickman.

The two made contact, forcing Ray wide, costing him time.

This left him down the field, leading to him remaining in a battle for ninth until the end of the race.

At the chequered flag, Ray finished 10th – fellow Suzuki rider Sylvain Guintoli won the race.

Ray is 11th in the championship, just 21 points behind 10th-placed Linfoot.

The next and final round of the championship takes place at Brands Hatch on October 13-15.

Dave Botterill – sent off in the 76th minute