Kent’s Brad Ray had the perfect weekend at latest round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship at Donington Park, taking his second ever treble victory.

He took the win in race one on Saturday afternoon, when he started from pole position got the hole shot but was shuffled back to third on lap one.
He was happy to sit behind Kyle Ryde and Glen Irwin and bide his time in the 20 lap race. He did that until five laps before the end.

He took Irwin and Ryde at the same corner as both made mistakes. He then didn’t look back as he built a 1.7 second lead in the closing laps as Irwin and Ryde scrapped for second place. 

Josh Brookes spoiled the party for Irwin and took third place.

Speaking after race one a pleased Ray said: “I got the hole shot and I was happy if I led, but Kyle (Ryde) passed me straight away and I knew they wanted to set their own pace. I was happy to sit behind and follow and save the tyre as much as I could.

“I could see maybe Glenn (Irwin) struggling a bit with the rear and I knew I had to make a pass as soon as possible, I went a little bit wide into the Melbourne loop which let Kyle pass me and then went wide.

“At that point I knew I needed to push for a couple of laps and I had a good enough tyre to set some reasonable lap time and hope that it broke the group or at least broke a couple of us away. It was an unknown race for everyone so I am very happy. 

“Just a big shout out to the Raceways Yamaha team and Steve, all my crew. It’s been a dream start to the 2025 season.”

In the lunchtime sprint race on Sunday, Day launched from second on the grid and got the hole shot again.

Ryde and Irwin got passed him at various points but Ray was back under them pretty quickly and from lap six he managed the race and came back home in P1 after a mistake cost Irwin, and Ryde couldn’t challenge him.

In race three he got off the line like a rocket and was in the lead by the first corner from P5 on the grid.

He would go on and lead the race from there and despite Rory Skinner’s and Irwin’s best efforts they couldn’t live with or challenge successfully a sublime Ray.

He goes into the next round at Snetterton with a twelve point championship lead. With four wins in the opening give races.

Reflecting on the perfect weekend, Ray said: “I didn’t really expect to win all three races coming into the weekend – I knew we’d be strong but I didn’t think we’d be in a position to take the triple given how strong Glenn and Kyle were at the test.

“We worked well as a team all weekend, worked hard on used tyres to find our rhythm for the end of the race. Glenn kept me honest in the last race and that one was probably my best win of my BSB career, having to dig deep after Glenn came back to me towards the end!

“I had to find something in myself and the bike to keep him behind, and we did, so I’m happy for myself, Raceways Motorcycles, Yamaha and all my team to back up Saturday’s win with the Sunday double.”

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