We’re only two rounds into this year’s British Superbike Championship and there’s clearly a long way to go but Bradley Ray has laid down a clear marker that he’s the man to beat. With four wins from five races, he’s demonstrating that his class, and the opposition now know, if they didn’t already, that he’ll be a tough nut to crack.
Former champion stars
Former BSB champion Ray has started with a bang. Switching to the experienced Raceways Yamaha team at the 11th hour has been a seamless transition and the signs are already looking ominous. Blistering starts have allowed him to open sizeable gaps in double quick time and then control the race from there.
Nowhere was this evident more than at Donington where he was lead was almost five seconds after as many laps; unless something catastrophic happened, no-one was ever going to reel him in and if truth be told, he made it look easy. Saying it was a masterclass would be an understatement, but he has to make this season work so that he can back onto the world stage and get his career back on track.
“I didn’t really expect to win all three races coming into the weekend,” he said. “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 (Irwin) and Kyle (Ryde) were at the test here.”
“We worked well as a team and 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.”
From the outside, his two seasons in WSB looked disappointing if not disastrous with just 33 points scored from 72 races, and only one top ten finish taken. But riding at World Championship level for two seasons has to make you a better rider and Ray was often within 1.5s of the fastest rider, just like Ryan Vickers is in his maiden WSB season.
Competing against Razgatlioglu, Bulega, Bautista and co will have benefitted Ray no end and, at present, that’s clearly the case after what we’ve witnessed at the first two rounds this year. A caveat is that he’s always gone well at Oulton, where he decimated the field in 2022, and at Donington, the circuit where he claimed his first series victories. But it wouldn’t be a surprise if he was equally dominant at the other circuits.
Irwin leads the chase
As expected, Irwin has been in the hunt in every race, and with four podiums so far, it’s been a strong start to the season, his ride from the fifth row to second at the opening round at Oulton Park particularly impressive.
Donington saw him improve in each race, fourth in race one, when his tyres faded in the final third of the race, followed by third in the Sprint race and then second in the final encounter when he pushed Ray harder than anyone. A new lap record of 1’26.832 around the 2.5-mile Leicestershire venue on the penultimate lap showed how hard he was trying, not that the stopwatch needed to show that, it was clear to the naked eye!
“We had a fourth, a third and a second so we’re going in the right direction,” he said. “Race one was really, really tough as we had a limiting factor with the bike on Friday and Saturday which wasn’t rectified until Sunday morning when it was a good chunk better.”
“I think the Sprint race was one that I could’ve won as I played the right game and stayed patient. I made a mistake though which left me with a lot of work to do with two laps to go. Setting a new lap record on lap 19 was good and we may have lost a couple of points but at this stage of the year, two points here or there is nothing and I’m quite happy either way.”
That’s very true but having not tasted a win yet, he’ll be eager for that to happen sooner rather than later, especially as one of his main threats is doing all the winning. From a psychological point of view, he’ll want to win at the next round at Snetterton, and he won’t want another round to pass without taking maximum points.
Work to do for Ryde
There’s no doubt reigning champion Ryde would have been a bit anxious ahead of the 2025 season when Ray was announced as his team-mate at OMG Racing over the winter months. Confident in his own ability, of course, but all too aware of the threat posed by the 2022 champion.
The duo have ended up at different teams after the well-publicised collapse of the original OMG line-up but, crucially, they’re still on identical R1 Yamaha’s. Ryde has his original crew with him, and Ray is with the experienced Raceways squad so they should be on a level playing field.
But Ryde has yet to taste victory and is very much being upstaged by his Yamaha rival. Two podiums at his local Donington circuit were a step forward but he would have hoped for more at a venue where he’s been dominant in the past.
True, he was only a second behind Ray in the first two races but the gap was almost 10s in the third so that will give him plenty of food for thought as the series takes a month’s break. He knows he’ll need to come out swinging at round three.
Haslam and Skinner prove Ducati threat
The season so far has very much been about Yamaha versus Ducati and with Ray and Ryde looking strong for Yamaha, Irwin has Leon Haslam and Rory Skinner for company at Ducati, Haslam starting the season with a bang, winning the opening race at round one.
That was his 47th career BSB win, and he backed it up at Oulton with third in race two, riding a Ducati for the first time since 2007 clearly no issue. He wasn’t quite so strong at Donington and would no doubt have left his local round disappointed to have missed out on another podium.
Nevertheless, three top six finishes was the outcome, the best of which was fourth in the final race, and these are the kind of weekends that can help define title challenges. You can’t win them all and if this was an ‘off’ weekend, it bodes well. He’s on a new bike, unlike his rivals, and with a new team so his learning curve is only going to go one way.
It’s a similar story for Skinner. The 23-year old has never ridden a Ducati before and he’s come into 2025 on the back of an injury-plagued season but it’s his fourth full campaign in the Superbike class and now’s the time to deliver.
The majority of the Scottish rider’s BSB podiums have come at his native Knockhill circuit so to finish third at Donington – and take fourth and fifth in the other two races – would have pleased him. Round one was low key for the 2020 British Supersport Champion, so he’ll be hoping Donington was the turning point and not a one-off.
Difficult start for Bridewell
One man who hasn’t had the most comfortable of starts to his campaign is 2023 champion Tommy Bridewell. The Honda Racing rider has rarely been off the podium these last two seasons but so far this year, he’s been nowhere near it.
Having struggled throughout pre-season, things haven’t improved in the races with a best finish of sixth to his name so far, the result coming in the very first race of the season. It’s fair to say he’s cut a frustrated figure inside the Honda garage.
His cause at Donington wasn’t aided by a heavy crash but it’s a lack of feeling with the Honda Fireblade that’s holding him back as well as struggling with the new-for-2025 Pirelli tyre. He’s lapping quicker than ever before, but his rivals have made a bigger jump and to put it into context, he finished on the podium at Donington and Oulton on seven occasions last year.
He’s already 53 points adrift of Ray and in his words says, ‘there’s a lot of work to do if this is going to be a title fighting campaign’.
Brookes offers Honda hope
Bridewell’s plight hasn’t been helped by the fact he’s being outperformed by one of the satellite Honda riders and teams. Neither Josh Brookes or DAO Racing campaigned Hondas last year, using BMW and Kawasaki respectively, but they’re getting their package to work whereas Bridewell isn’t.
Brookes finished third in the first race to not only take his first BSB podium since 2023 but also give the team their first-ever in the championship. The Australian was able to go quicker as the race wore on, utilising his experience on used tyres to overhaul Irwin, Skinner and Haslam in the latter stages of the race.
He backed it up with a brace of sixths, the final race seeing him post his fastest lap of the weekend, just two-tenths outside Irwin’s new lap record, and he’s slotted into sixth in the early championship table.
“We started the weekend with a new setting compared to the test last month and the bike felt good straightaway,” he said. “Every time we went out, we went quicker so it’s really positive. It’s great to be on the podium again and the icing on the cake is that it’s the team’s first and I’m pleased to be the one to provide that result.”
Having started watching motorcycle races all over the world form childhood, Phil Wain has been a freelance motorcycle journalist for almost 20 years and is features writer for a number of publications including BikeSport News, Classic Racer and Road Racing Ireland, as well as being a regular contributor to MCN and MCN Sport.
He is PR officer for a number of teams and riders at both the British Superbike Championship and International road races, including PBM Ducati, John McGuinness, KTS Racing and Jackson Racing. He is also heavily involved with the Isle of Man TT Races working with the race organisation, writing official press releases and race reports as well as providing the TV and radio broadcasting teams with statistical information.