The third round of the Superbike World Championship has drawn to a close at the TT Circuit Assen in The Netherlands, and it was the very first round for the Yamaha MotoxRacing WorldSBK Team, which is only competing in the European rounds of the production-derived series.
After three free practice sessions in which rider Bradley Ray worked with his technicians to adapt the setup of his Yamaha YZF R1, the young English rider competed in yesterday’s Superpole, qualifying eighteenth which put him on row six of the grid for race 1, which he finished eighteenth.
This morning, in cool and sunny conditions, Ray took part in his first Superpole Race. The race was reduced from 10 to 8 laps after another rider left oil on the track during the sighting lap. The Yamaha MotoxRacing WorldSBK Team concluded this race in sixteenth place, a good result considering that this was Bradley’s first experience of the sprint format.
In the afternoon, the final race got underway. Ray got away well as the lights went out and immediately made up some places but unfortunately he suffered a crash on lap two that put a premature end to his race. A real pity because Bradley had the chance to score his first world championship points.
The next WorldSBK round will run on 5-7 May at the Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya, in Spain.
"A difficult weekend draws to a close. Due to a series of unexpected events, we were unable to achieve the desired results, but we will try to harness this experience as we prepare the best we can for the next race.”
“My first weekend in WorldSBK has been positive. We’ve made a lot of progress and constantly reduced our gap to the front. Unfortunately I crashed on lap two of the last race. But this doesn’t change the overall result of a round in which we have understand where we need to work, and we will continue to improve at the next Barcelona round in two weeks’ time. I want to thank the whole team for their hard work, and Yamaha and our sponsors for giving me the opportunity to race in WorldSBK”.
