The seventh round of the Superbike World Championship concluded today at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari di Imola.
After putting in an excellent performance in free practice and qualifying sixth in Superpole, the Yamaha MotoxRacing WorldSBK Team rider Bradley Ray was unable to exploit his full potential or that of the bike in race 1, also due to an unexpected drop in front tyre performance. This morning, in hot and sunny conditions, the young Englishman lined up for the Superpole Race, which ran over ten laps. He made a good start, but a small technical problem unfortunately caused Ray to run off track and rejoin in last place. The gritty rider was nevertheless able to make up ground and cross the line sixteenth.
Race 2 ran in the early afternoon but was reduced to just fifteen laps due to the very high temperatures, which rose above 38°C. This time Bradley made a very fast start which saw him move up into eighth place, inside the leading group. The young Brit maintained a very strong pace and was able to make up two more positions four laps from the end to ultimately finish sixth. An excellent result, achieved at a track that Ray had never seen before, which confirms his talent and growth, as well as the growth of Sandro Carusi’s team.
The next WorldSBK round will take place at the Autodrom Most in the Czech Republic on 28-30 July.
"We’ve completed what we thought might be the most difficult weekend of all in the best possible way. Sixth place today repays all the work put in during recent rounds. Bradley is proving to be a real professional and I think our team is also showing significant growth.”
“This weekend we’ve seen the results of all our hard work and have harnessed all the progress made since the start of the championship. After a strong Superpole result, I was slowed down in the first two races by a drop in the front tyre, but in race 2 I was able to keep up with the frontrunners and score a really great result. This was my first time racing at Imola, but right from free practice on Friday I knew we could do well at this track, which reminds me of some British track. Big thanks to the whole team and all our sponsors for their support.”
Race 2: 1) Razgatlioglu (Yamaha) – 2) Bassani (Ducati) – 3) Rea (Kawasaki) - 4) Locatelli (Yamaha) – 5) Rinaldi (Ducati) – 6) Ray (Yamaha)
