Brad Ray had an up and down weekend in the latest round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship from his home round at Brands Hatch on the iconic GP circuit.

A win in race one on Saturday, was followed up with a DNF in the opening race on Sunday lunchtime, and a fourth place finish in race three. He maintains his championship lead over Kyle Ryde, but Scott Redding is charging hard, and will definitely become a threat as the season moves on.

The win at his home circuit in front of his friends and family, saw him joined on the podium by his nan, and stretched his lead to 56 points over third place finisher Kyle Ryde.

Having got the hole shot he didn’t have things all his own way with Christian Iddon challenging in the first part of the race, Ryde then challenged in the middle part.

Scott Redding then came on strong in the final stages, registering the fastest lap of the race, but he just ran out of laps to challenge Ray who had built up enough of a lead to bring the Raceways Yamaha home for his first Brands Hatch GP circuit victory.

It is an impressive season so far for Ray with ten wins, a second and a third, he will start tomorrow’s sprint race from second on the grid.

The second race of the weekend looked to be going the same way for Ray until just after the safety car when he tucked the front and crashed out from the lead of the race, for his first DNF of the 2025 season. He was starting to come under pressure from Scott Redding but was looking comfortable having got into the lead from the hole shot at the start of the race.

It showed how quick the pace was as Brad Ray secured pole position for race three with a new lap record for the Brands Hatch GP circuit. Though he did see his lead in the championship cut to 40 points.

Once again he was away in the lead in race three, with Danny Kent keeping him honest, and then on a safety car restart after a big crash for Lee Jackson, Kent made the move and took the lead from Ray, with Ryde then breathing down his neck along with Scott Redding. This was definitely a test from lap seven of the 2022 champion and how he would deal with riders passing him.

Ryde pulled the pin and started to pull away from Ryde, Ray and Redding who were all sitting on each other’s exhaust pipes, ready to make a move on each other and all three were making mistakes and literally riding on the edge, in some sketchy ish conditions. Christian Iddon also made his way to join the party.

Brad was like a blue shark hunting behind Ryde ready to make a move for second place, who he was equally looking to take the lead from Kent. It was turning into one hell of a race three for sure. On lap 13 Ryde made the move for the lead and Kent wasn’t having any of it and they kept swapping places. With Ray and Redding just lurking behind them and Iddon not far back from that. At this point it was anyone for the win with six laps to go.

With two laps to go it was still anyone’s for the podium, with Ryde and Kent breaking away and Redding making a move on Ray to drop him into fourth place. Onto the last lap and Ray was tucked behind Redding and Kent was tucked behind Ryde. Mistakes didn’t happen and Ray had to settle for a fourth place finish, but it was a good result following his crash in race two.

Images courtesy of Colin Port Images – www.colinportimages.co.uk