Round six of the Superbike World Championship got underway today at the British track of Donington Park, located near to Castle Donington.
This is the home round for Bradley Ray, who competes for the Yamaha Motoxracing WorldSBK Team. The young Englishman is therefore very determined and keen to score strong results in front of his home crowd.
Despite the tricky weather conditions, with rain showers complicating the work for all teams and riders, Ray finished sixth in the combined standings at the end of this first day, which has the squad feeling confident heading into the weekend. In this morning’s FP1, before the rain began to fall, Bradley set a time of 1’28”057, which allowed him to close the session in fifth place. Ray and his team were intent on improving this reference during the afternoon’s second session, but the rain returned almost immediately and so it was impossible to do more than they had done in FP1. That earlier reference nevertheless saw the Yamaha Motoxracing WorldSBK Team rider place a very strong sixth overall.
Following tomorrow morning’s FP3, Ray will be back on track for the Superpole and the first of the weekend’s races.
"I’m really pleased with today’s results. Bradley immediately felt comfortable on the bike here, at what is his home track. Aside from this, I’m also pleased with the atmosphere inside the garage.”
“I’m really pleased with our first day here at Donington. The track has recently been resurfaced, and I immediately felt good on my bike. We made some changes that proved positive and allowed us to set some fast times. Unfortunately rain in the afternoon kept us in the garage, but I held sixth place overall and so we can be optimistic heading into tomorrow’s race. I want to thank the team for all their support today.”
