Brad Ray topped the time sheets in the free practice sessions for this weekends British Superbike Championship at Oulton Park.

Having begun in free practice one not really feeling the set-up, he made some changes in free practice two and they seem to have worked.

Ray set the fastest lap on his first flying run of the session and the McAMS Yamaha rider wouldn’t be beaten in the closing stages despite Max Cook on the AJN Steelstock bimota closing to within 0.016s on his final push in the last laps. Just 0.901s covered the top 14 riders ahead of tomorrow’s opening race in Cheshire.

Ryde had started the session as the rider to beat after smashing the circuit record earlier in the day, but the reigning champion crashed out at Brittens unhurt with just over ten minutes of Pre-Qualifying remaining. The crash was Ryde’s first in an incredible 371 days after his consistent performances since free practice two at Brands Hatch at Sterling’s Bend on 25 July 2025.

Ryde was able to return to the pitlane and the Nitrous Coin Nitrous Competitions Racing team got him back on track for the final minutes of the session, where he was able to jump from the danger zone in 12th place into eighth, to guarantee his place in tomorrow’s ROKiT Oxygen Performance Qualifying 2 session.

Storm Stacey was third fastest as the Bathams AJN Racing Ducati rider continued his form in Cheshire, holding off Ryan Vickers who held fourth for Honda Racing UK with an improvement in the closing minutes.

Scott Redding was fifth fastest for the Hager PBM Racing Team as he made progress from the earlier session to return to the fight at the front.

Rookie Joe Talbot had a strong start to his home round in sixth place on the second of the AJN Steelstock bimotas, holding off the experienced Leon Haslam and Ryde. Jason O’Halloran and Rory Skinner completed the top ten.

Ilya Mikhalchik qualified directly for Q2 for the ROKiT BMW Motorrad British Superbike Race team, whilst Josh Brookes completed the top 12 for DAO Racing Honda despite a crash at Shell in the final ten minutes.

Speaking after the days track action, Ray said: “It was a strange start to the weekend. We started with a similar Brands Hatch set up with a few different suspension changes as such and it was no good.

“It didn’t feel like my bike at all and I said to the boys that we need to figure something out and find a direction that works. And to be fair, in FP2 we found that direction. It’s the best that the bike has felt all season and we’re definitely going in the right direction now with what we’re doing. 

“It’s going to be tough tomorrow. These boys are very fast and it’s going to be a long train of five or six riders. You need to be aggressive early on to make some track position and then settle into the race. It’s going to be a dogfight and I think it’s going to be good for the crowd and the spectators so hopefully everyone tunes in.”

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