Ray: ‘You can’t win them all’
‘I could have pushed but would have ended up in the gravel’
Bradley Ray remains optimistic despite relinquishing his championship lead for the first time this season after sixth and seventh place finishes at Oulton Park.
It’s the first round this year Ray leaves without silverware, and while he was visibly frustrated with the result after being pipped to a top six spot by Josh Brookes in race two, he was keen to look on the bright side. “It was just one of those weekends where we didn’t have the pace,” he confessed. “I could have pushed on and tried to chase down the guys in front, but I could have easily ended up in the gravel with no points.
“The main thing I’ve been missing was a little bit of front-end feeling. I can initially go into a corner at the same pace as the others but I’m just lacking on that last little bit on entry. We thought about switching to a softer front tyre for race two but it would have been one of those gambles that could have easily gone the other way. We knew we had a good enough bike to run in the top six, we just missed out as Josh pipped me at the end but I’m fairly happy, obviously I want to go out there and win but you can’t win them all.” It might be six weeks until the next round of the series at Snetterton but it won’t be a quiet time for the Buildbase Suzuki rider. Not only will he be heading to Snetterton for the official test next week, but straight after he will head to Japan for a test on the factory Yoshimura Suzuki with the potential of securing a ride for the prestigious Suzuka 8-Hour later this year.