More on KentOnline
Home Folkestone Sport Article
A third win of the season followed by a 10th podium in 2022 kept Lydd's Bradley Ray top of the British Superbike Championship standings.
RICH Energy OMG Racing Yamaha's Ray took a dominant victory in Saturday's 22-lap sprint race at Knockhill and a fourth and second place in Sunday's double-header gives him a lead of 16 points.
A lack of pace in race two after the introduction of the safety car ended hopes of a top-three spot, but changes to the bike's set-up saw a return to the podium in race three.
Ray said: “It’s been a rollercoaster weekend, starting in free practice, but we turned it around.
"I was unlucky to miss the podium in race two after the safety car went in, it took me by surprise as we just didn’t have the pace after that.
"We made a few changes to the RICH Energy OMG Racing Yamaha R1 for the third race and were able to hold the pace a little bit longer, but just not enough to match Jason [O'Halloran] at the end.
"Overall, I’m happy to come away with two out of three podiums and feeling really good on the Yamaha R1.”
Leading from lights to flag, Ray was untroubled in the spint race, controlling the pace and holding off Rory Skinner (Kawasaki) and O’Halloran (Yamaha).
Sunday's races were eight laps longer with Ray starting from pole for the fifth time this year. Skinner, though, initially took hold of race two before the deployment of the safety car after an incident at Taylor’s Hairpin brought the group back together for a dash to the flag.
Ray finished fourth with O’Halloran taking the win. For race three Ray made his 10th front row start in 12 races, and when Skinner slid off just before one-third distance he led with O’Halloran shadowing his every move. However despite Ray's best efforts O'Halloran got by in the closing stages.
Ray is next in action on home soil at Brands Hatch on July 22-24.