Bradley Ray’s winning return to the British Superbike Championship was overshadowed by tragedy at Oulton Park.

Lydd rider Ray made the perfect start to his BSB comeback after two years in World Superbikes with victory in the opening race of the season on Sunday. The Raceways Yamaha rider was then third in Monday’s race two before disaster struck in the supporting British Supersport series.

Riders Owen Jenner, from East Sussex, and Shane Richardson, from New Zealand, were killed after a first-lap accident involving 11 bikes in the feature race. Folkestone’s Jack Nixon, who is competing in the series this year for Ready 4 Racing Vision Ducati, and Maidstone’s Louis Valleley, of XMT Racing Triumph, were unharmed.

The race and the remainder of the meeting were cancelled.

Speaking about his opening win before Monday’s incident, Ray told Britishsuperbike.com: “I wasn’t expecting that, I was expecting a little bit more of a tough race.

“It was difficult to know where everyone was at pace-wise because obviously testing is different.

“I got a good start and I knew how good I was on new tyres so I just thought ‘you know what, I don’t know what the tyres are going to do towards the end so let’s just push to get a gap and manage what I need to at the end’.”

The season is due to continue at Donington Park on May 16-18.