Brad Ray claimed his second victory of the British Superbike season in determined fashioned at Oulton Park this afternoon.

Though it was a fair old tussle with six riders in with a shout of victory during the race, but it was the McAMS Yamaha rider who would come out on top to close the gap slightly to the top two in the standings.

At the start of the race, the AJN Steelstock bimotas both launched off the line to lead the pack with Max Cook leading rookie teammate Joe Talbot into Old Hall for the first time ahead of Bradley Ray, Storm Stacey and Leon Haslam with Kyle Ryde in eighth.

Storm Stacey had moved ahead of Ray on the opening lap, but the McAMS Yamaha rider instantly fought back and by lap five he had moved into second place.

Talbot meanwhile had a moment at Cascades and that gave Stacey and Haslam the chance to move ahead on lap five. The lead group was a freight train of riders not wanting to give an inch as Cook held the advantage from Ray, Stacey, Haslam, Ryan Vickers and Scott Redding.

Ray grabbed the lead of the race on lap eight from Cook and there was a real tussle as Stacey fought back too as the battle continued, putting the Bathams AJN Racing Ducati at the front.

By lap nine, Stacey held the lead from Ray, Cook and Haslam with Ryde and Redding part of the front group after a tussle between the pair earlier in the race.

Ray first made a move on Haslam at Lodge with a stunning move around the outside on lap 11, before carrying the momentum into Old Hall on the next lap to regain the lead.

Ryde was on the attack too and the defending champion made his move on Stacey at Lodge on lap 12 as the champions held the leading three positions.

A focused Ray was pushing hard; he was holding off his rivals as Haslam continued to try to grasp the lead, which he nearly did at Island on lap 14, but his McAMS Yamaha rival held a determined line to deny him the opportunity.

Ray then held the edge to the finish, but Ryde was pushing Haslam for second place over the final laps, making his move on lap 16 and despite the Moto Rapido Racing rider trying to regain the advantage, he had to settle for third place behind the reigning champion at the chequered flag.

Stacey equalled his best result of the season in fourth place, but there was disappointment for Cook as he dramatically crashed out at high-speed at Cascades with three laps to go whilst holding fifth place in the pack.

Redding subsequently claimed fifth place for the Hager PBM Racing Team ahead of Vickers who held off Talbot and his Honda Racing UK teammate Jason O’Halloran. Christian Iddon and Glenn Irwin completed the top ten.

Speaking after the race a delighted Ray said: “It was a solid race! I didn’t actually get the best of starts, the two bimotas got real strong starts and then Max has real strong pace at the start. I managed to get through on Joe and then reel Max in and to be honest I was quite happy to follow Max for as long as he wanted to lead.

“He made a small mistake at turn one and then I thought ‘right I’m going to go through and see what I’ve got’, but at that point Storm was able to get through into Island, which sort of backed the pace up a little bit.

“My board went from G2 to G5, so I knew the people behind were coming and Leon was trying to get ahead of Storm at the last corner. On one lap, he just went a little close to the white line and Leon had to roll off. I thought ‘right this is my time to go’ and I went around the outside at the last corner, got a good drive into turn one and back-shifted to second to stop the old girl and got through!

“I didn’t think I had that pace in me in the middle of the race, but I was able to hit my markers and the last few laps were quite stressful as I didn’t know who was behind me, but the board stayed quite consistent.

“I think the Sprint race tomorrow is going to be a fast race, a lot of passing, and then obviously another long race, which gives people time to bring improvements to the bike and see what everyone’s got. I’m super happy to get the win for the boys today and we’ll try to be in the battle again tomorrow.”

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