McAMS Yamaha and Bradley Ray claimed an impressive double British Superbike Championship podium finish at the TT Circuit Assen as the Showdown got underway.
Ray topped both Free Practice sessions, but a small crash in the opening stages of Pre-Qualifying left him eleventh at the chequered flag, scraping into Qualifying 2. With the issue diagnosed and clear pace already on the board, the R1 crew headed into race day in confident spirits.
The challenges continued into Saturday with tricky wet conditions and a mis-judged tyre choice in Qualifying 2 leaving Ray thirteenth on the grid for race one. Ray slipped to sixteenth but fought his way back through the field with real determination to finish fifth.
Starting from fourth on the grid for race two, Ray passed Vickers to move into podium contention. Chasing down Scott Redding and Kyle Ryde ahead of him, Ray began eating into the gap to second place, before the red flag, handing Ray a runner-up finish.
The final race of the weekend produced a sensational three-way battle between Ray and rivals Ryde and Redding, ultimately ending with Ray claiming second place to cap off the weekend with a double podium.
With the front three running elbow to elbow as the pack began the final lap, the win was anyone's for the taking. Overtaken by Redding and now sat in third, Ray rode with intent while Redding pushed Ryde hard for the lead.
A last-gasp dive for victory at the final chicane didn't pay off for Redding, who ran wide and compromised his drive to the line. The McAMS Yamaha rider seized his chance on the run to the flag, storming through to claim second place after 17 laps of intense battle.
Ray said: “I was trying! Trying the whole race. I got past Ryan and I got to the back of Kyle and I thought, as I had plus zero on my board. I knew at some point that Ryan would be try and pass me back or Scott would be there so I needed to try and get through on Kyle to be in more of a safe zone.
“Every time I made a move, Kyle would get me back, then I’d make another one and Kyle would get me back the same corner, so it was a bit of a cat and mouse game. I had my strong points on the track and after a few moves; Kyle sort of defended a bit more and knew where my strong points were so that made it a bit more difficult.
“When I managed to get close I thought ‘right if I can get through into this chicane and onto the start finish, I might be able to get a clear lap in front’ and then I got past into there. Scott then got past me into there over the start line into turn one and then I thought, ‘right, this is going to be a difficult last lap!’
“I could see from a few places what Scott was trying to do, I tried lining up turn 15 but as I was lining up Scott, Scott was lining up Kyle and I thought ‘there’s no way the three of us are making it through here!’
“So I sat back and waited for it to unfold, did my normal line and tried to get a good drive. I just saw Scott get a wheelie and I didn’t know where I was going! I was off to the edge of the track, but I just kept it pinned and thought ‘yeah, that’ll do’ and I’m happy with that. You can’t complain with racing like that and any of us could have won that, but fair play to Kyle, every time I attacked, he attacked back so it was nice for the fans and nice for the spectators at home watching.”