Bradley Ray has admitted he was surprised to storm to pole this afternoon ahead of tomorrow’s opening Bennetts British Superbike race.

The Buildbase Suzuki rider bounced back from a tough Friday where he struggled in both free practice sessions, to post the fifth fastest lap in this morning’s FP3.

However, he saved his best until last as he charged to a lap of 1’46.632 in the closing seconds of the session, knocking McAMS Yamaha’s Josh Brookes off the top spot to secure pole.

And he later revealed that it hadn’t been something he had even considered when he first arrived at the track this morning.

“If I’m honest I wasn’t expecting this for this weekend,” he said. “We struggled in FP1 and FP2, and the team worked hard last night to find a solution for today. I was starting to get it in FP3 this morning and knew we had a little bit of pace.

“We’ve made big steps with the bike and my confidence as well. I think we did a run on the SC1 tyre this morning and the pace seemed to be pretty good.

“I came around for my first flying lap and I had 47.5 on my pit board and the next lap around it was a 47.5 again and I thought I’ve got one last chance to push. That last lap I just had to grit my teeth and push as hard as I could.

“I’m just so happy, it obviously makes it a lot easier starting from pole position and I’m looking forward to seeing where we can take it.”