Versatile Ray to make Grand Prix debut

Bradley Ray has raced in Spanish Moto2, British Superstock 600 and British Motostar championships this year and now the former Red Bull Rookies race winner will make his Grand Prix debut as a wildcard at Silverstone.

Ray will ride an FTR in the race in a deal that came about from the chassis manufacturers desire to return to the GP fold with a British rider for their home race.

“I spoke to Mark Keen from FTR about it in the Spanish championship because I used to ride for Mark on the FTR-KTM in Moto3 and we started talking about this. He said that it might be worth giving FTR a call because they had a bike available and they were interested in having a British rider on a British bike at the British Grand Prix. My manager called them and we started to get the process started.”

To fund the wildcard Ray is looking for crowd funding to help raise the €14,000 to cover entry fees, tyres, fuel and all sundry charges related to the race weekend.

“We need to raise €14000 for the race and that covers everything with the entry, fuel, tyres and everything that we need for the weekend. We’ve paid the fee upfront so that we can guarantee being on the grid and now we’re trying to raise the money and we have opened a fan account that you can donate anything from £10 upwards.”

Silverstone will mark Ray’s Grand Prix debut and he plans to have a test at the track next week to help get up to speed before the race.

“For Silvertone we’re going to try and get a test day next week to try and get used to the track on the FTR and get a base setting around the circuit. We should be able to get a full day and the lunchtime so that should help us get a good base setting. If we went into the GP without track time on the bike and at that track you’d be on the backfoot straight away. I want to go there and get some experience from the race but my aim is to be able to fight with some of the riders in the top 20 or 25. If I get in a good lap in qualifying hopefully I can stick with those guy in the race.”