Bradley Ray was the quickest man overall on Saturday at Cadwell Park as rainy conditions brought a premature end to the British Superbike Championship action in Lincolnshire.
Ray’s best lap-time came in Free Practice Two before the rain came, with the McAMS Yamaha man posting a 1:25.674 to hold a comfortable advantage over the field. The majority of riders returned to the pits for the second half of the session due to the wet conditions.
Championship leader Kyle Ryde managed to put in a 1:26.114 lap before calling it a day, whilst Ryan Vickers completed the top three for Honda Racing UK. The team will be running a special HM Plant Honda inspired livery in all three races this weekend.
Rookie Joe Talbot ended his day in fourth for AJN Steelstock Bimota, whilst Storm Stacey completed the top five ahead of Christian Iddon and Leon Haslam. Glenn Irwin and Jason O’Halloran were eighth and ninth respectively, with Rory Skinner completing the top 10.
Josh Brookes and Ilya Mikhalchik secured the final two automatic spots for tomorrow’s Superpole qualifying session. If the weather is dry, the top 12 from today, plus the top three from Q1 on Sunday, will have just one qualifying lap each. If it’s wet, a traditional qualifying session will take place.
Riders having to go through Q1 include the returning Max Cook , who was declared fit to race after recovering from his huge crash in Race One at Thruxton . Lee Jackson and Fraser Rogers will join the Bimota man, as will title-chasing rider Scott Redding.
Danny Kent and Danny Buchan will also be present, with the former entering his first BSB weekend since 2024 after coming out of retirement for MET fonaCAB Racing Ducati.
Charlie Nesbitt, the returning Luke Hedger, Eugene McManus, Richard Kerr, also returning from injury after his warm up crash at Thruxton, Rhys Irwin and Brayden Elliott completed the field on Saturday.
As things stand, BSB riders will have a 10-minute FP3 session at 12:15 on Sunday afternoon, with Q1 following at 12:45. The Superpole session is scheduled for 13:15, with Race One pencilled in for 16:15.
Sports Reporter - Motorcycle racing enthusiast Josh joined the MCN team in 2019. He studied Sports Journalism at the University of Sunderland, leaving with a 2:1 and a Gold Standard Diploma in Journalism from the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ). Introduced to the world of motorcycle racing by his dad as a youngster, Josh became a fan of MotoGP, WorldSBK and BSB. Like many, Josh became a huge Valentino Rossi supporter…little did he know that years later he would ask a question or two to the man himself.
Sports Reporter and fan of all things motorsport