British Superbikes - Cadwell Park: Race one win from pole for dominant Ray

Bradley Ray had the first race day of the Cadwell Park meeting under full control as he translated his electric, qualifying pace into a racing masterclass to win the sprint race of round seven at Cadwell Park.

The #28 collected his fourth win of the season after converting his record qualifying pace into equally fast race pace as he managed the race from the front to win the shortened twelve lap sprint around the Lincolnshire track.

Initially, before the red flag that came out for Lee Jackson’s crash at the Mountain part of the course, Ray had not had it quite so easy. His main Sunday competition, Rory Skinner had just put in a superb overtaking move to lead.

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Ready for a second run and back on pole from position from the last complete lap, this time the Rich Energy OMG Yamaha rider was ready and picked up the pace every time the Kawasaki neared to ease out a dominant win after trying to break away.

On leading Ray said post-race:

“I knew if I got the holeshot and lead - almost like the first lap or the first two laps I could put the hammer down and try to break them.

Sector one and two I’m okay but sector three was where I was able to gain a little bit of time on everyone”.

That was evident from Ray’s pole lap where he was down slightly on then leader Skinner before his blistering third section took him to the top of the timesheets.

“To be second at Cadwell Park is Mega for me!”

Skinner had already come closest to Ray in the Superpole qualifying format and seemed happy and brimming with confidence after his second wildcard race in the Moto2 class in Austria.

In just his second year racing around the tricky layout the Cheshire Holdings FS-3 rider shone, but he couldn’t quite get near enough to try another pass as he had before the red flag, with tyres then fading to ensure more defensive riding from the frontrunners.

“To be second at Cadwell Park is mega for me, I never expected to be but yeah, I’m more than happy”.

On tyres Skinner added:

“I was quite comfortable sitting in behind Brad. I think the tyres kind of dropped off a little bit towards the end and, you know, we all struggled a little bit”.

The podium was completed by Danny Buchan - his first rostrum visit of the season.

The SYNETIQ BMW Motorrad rider was grateful that he received a bout of good fortune - he had dropped down into the chasing group forming and hit Tom Sykes while trying to recover just before the red flag occurred - however with the grid going back to the only complete lap and Lee Jackson having filled third originally now unable to rejoin, he was placed on the front row of the grid.

“A monkey on my back”

Buchan was grateful for his enhanced grid placing and chance to hit the podium in 2022:

“After the incident with Tom, I was a little bit more tentative in the second part of the race.

Given the opportunity to start third, I knew I had to get away wit Rory and Brad, which I did, but I kind of felt that there was a monkey on my back in terms of getting a podium , so once I got that now, I feel a bit more relaxed”.

No podium points for O’Halloran

Moving into the part of the season where riders start to focus on podium points if they have a chance to make the Showdown, it was Jason O’Halloran who missed out in fourth. The McAms Yamaha rider had a spell in third before Buchan regained the place.

Though still clear out front in the overall standings with 344 points, twelve ahead of Ray, missing out on vital podium points sees him stay on 48, while the race winner moves up to 40.

Rory Skinner finishing the race sees him tied with team-mate Lee Jackson overall, both with 219. Jackson has 14 podium points ,while Skinner moves onto nine.

The rest of the showdown places remain filled by Glenn Irwin, Kyle Ryde, Tarran Mackenzie and Tommy Bridewell.

In the race it was fifth placed Bridewell who set the best time while giving chase - a new fastest race lap - so will start on pole tomorrow for race two on his Oxford Products Ducati.

Peter Hickman (FHO Racing BMW) faded to sixth, while Andrew Irwin (SYNETIQ BMW Motorrad) had opposite fortunes, along with tenth placed Josh Brookes (MCE Ducati) he made up the most positions in the race to finish seventh, powering away from his brother Glenn, who finished ninth for Honda.

They were separated on track by Leon Haslam, a multiple former winner at Cadwell, who was ninth in the sprint for VisionTrack Kawasaki.

Reigning champion Mackenzie was eleventh behind Brookes on the second McAMS bike.

The remaining points on offer went to Kyle Ryde (Rich Energy OMG Yamaha, who had a rear puncture before the red flag in 12th , Ryan Vickers (FHO Racing BMW with Attis Sports) in 13th Honda’s Tom Neave in 14th and Buildbase Suzuki’s Danny Kent, who was promoted to 15th following a penalty issued after the race for Christian Iddon, who took Tom Sykes out of the race.

The race was red flagged just two laps in after Lee Jackson’s crash left his bike on the track and those arriving unsighted behind him to do their best to avoid the machine. Ryde had just the tyre problem, while Takumi Takahsahi was unable to make the restart. The biggest casualty was the unfortunate Dan Jones, who was conscious following the accident but airlifted to hospital to get him the best care as quickly as possible.