Compared to the 2018 season opener, Buildbase Suzuki’s Bradley Ray couldn’t have had a more different start to 2019, taking home only a handful of points compared to the 50 he bagged last year.
The big-haired youngster is struggling for rear grip with the GSX-R1000 and was off the pace all weekend.
A crash in the first free practice session put him on the back foot for the rest of the weekend, while he also struggled with edge grip.
Ray finished 16th in race one, but changes between to two outings saw him improve to 10th in race two.
“It was a tough weekend. The crash really hindered us, and we needed the track time as there are a few areas we need to really focus on and improve,” said Ray.
On the whole the bike’s good, but we’re missing a bit of grip when we’re on the side of the tyre and it’s costing us.
“But we got two races in and plenty of data and made a big improvement from race one to race two. It wasn’t the best way to start the year, but it could be worse.
It’s a long season, we’ve got a test next week, we’ll keep digging hard and it’ll come.”