Kent’s Brad Ray kept his Bennetts British Superbike Championship aspirations alive with a podium in Assen at the weekend.

It wasn’t quite the results that the Raceways Yamaha rider wanted from the visit to the Cathedral of Speed, but he is still in touch of Kyle Ryde with six races of the season left.

The weekend got off to a strong start for Ray, who was keen to bounce back after a couple of challenging rounds. The 28-year-old showed his intent by topping both free practice sessions on Friday, before storming to a stunning lap in Qualifying to break the BSB outright lap record for pole position with a time of 1’35.529.

After a fully dry weekend, there was an unexpected climatic twist ahead of Race 1 as the heavens opened over the TT Circuit. The rain kept coming, and after a wet sighting lap period riders set off for a wet race, with Ray taking it steady off the start to familiarise himself with the new conditions. Dropping back as far as ninth in the early stages, the 2022 champion gained his composure and began picking off the field. Moving into third position at half race distance, Ray was the quickest rider on track when worsening conditions caught him out resulting in a crash at Turn 5.

A red flag came out following the crash for track conditions, and with riders initially set to head back out for a six-lap dash, Ray was permitted to restart from the back of the grid. The team put in a shift to get the crashed bike ready for Ray to head out, and while they succeeded the effort was futile as a further downpour on the sighting lap of the restart brought out another red flag. With conditions not improving, organisers called the race and awarded half-points – as Ray was out of the race at the time of red flag, he’d record a DNF.

A similar story followed for Race 2, with rain coming down in the build-up to the race meaning for another wet 18 laps. Determined to make amends for Saturday’s mishap, Ray held his composure launching from second on the grid, demonstrating his mettle with a solid ride to third place to recoup valuable championship points over rival Kyle Ryde.

Starting from the second row of the grid for a dry Race 3, Ray was able to hold position and fight for the podium in the early stages but the weather would again cause complications with a light shower on lap three bringing out the red flag. Restarting from seventh, he was up to fourth in the early stages with an exciting battle ensuing. Losing some time in the battle, he was then unfortunately unable to recover the time lost to the leading group and crossed the line sixth.

The series resumes at Oulton Park in two weeks’ time, with Ray now 31 points off series leader Kyle Ryde with six vital races remaining.

Speaking after the weekend, Ray said: “It’s been a bit of a mixed weekend to be honest. We were really fast through practice and qualifying so I was disappointed when the rain came for Race 1, but that being said, the bike felt incredible and I was really comfortable in the wet conditions.

“Visibility was poor and there was a lot of standing water, but I was feeling good and had no moments but all of a sudden I aquaplaned and the rear came round on me and I was sliding through the gravel!

“In Race 2, I was again feeling really good in the conditions but had a couple of moments, so I was happy to be able to bring it home in third for the team and recoup some valuable points on Kyle.

“Unfortunately, in the second part of Race 3 I lost a little bit too much time in the early stages and you can’t afford to do that in BSB – there are definitely areas we can look to improve so we can fight more easily moving forwards. There are a lot of points left on the table, especially with the increase of points for Brands Hatch, and it’s not over until it’s over.”

Images courtesy of Tim Keeton – Impact Images