BSB: Ray confident front end issues are fixed

Bradley Ray says he and the Buildbase Suzuki team have taken a step forward that will see their fortunes improve at Thruxton this weekend.

The young gun was off the boil at Brands Hatch, finishing the second race in 16^th place after struggling with a severe lack of front end feel.

However, after a test at Cadwell Park earlier this week, the team found what they believe to be the solution to their problems in a new engine map.

Ray was second quickest in today’s opening session, suggesting the change had worked but he dropped to 14^th in the afternoon’s second session. However, the curly-haired youngster insists he didn’t try new rubber and was focused on race runs instead of an outright lap time.

“I feel we have definitely made a step forward,” he told MCN after the session. “We weren’t up there in FP2 but the times are so close and we didn’t put a new tyre in at the end.

“We showed our pace earlier and worked on race distance this afternoon, but the ECU map we are now working with has made a massive difference. It makes the bike so much easier to ride and it means I’m not pushing the front as much which was the problem at Brands.

“Something somewhere wasn’t working in the ECU to give us the engine braking we needed, we tried a lot of things but always had the same feeling. The team have dug in deep since Brands to try and find the issue and the change of map at Cadwell was noticeable immediately.

“Podium points would be nice over the next few rounds but we are now fifth in the championship so the important thing is securing that showdown position and not slipping any further down. If we can do that we can then work our way from there in the three showdown rounds.”