Bradley Ray retains Yamaha Motoxracing WorldSBK seat for 2024 | World Superbikes | News (crash.net) Nice
But will the bike be better, as this year it was a kitted GYTR bike and the engine was about 15kph down on the straights
Without wanting to state the obvious he’s not going to get a decent wsb ride sat in bsb. Hopefully he can use the opportunity to shoehorn himself onto a better team and bike.
In today’s financial climate, riders increasingly need to have significant personal sponsorship, on top of any talent they have, to command a ride in a team running a competitive bike. As much as it pains me to say, IMO, I don’t see Bradley having that level sponsorship. Look at Taz, even with his father’s connections, he slipped into obscurity in WSP and I don’t see his career flourishing in WSBK on a Honda next year. Andy
Yeh i get that but still depends on talent and application to an extent surely. I cant imagine Redding took a huge amount with him when he jumped straight on the factory Ducati from BSB?
Redding is probably not the best example, an ex MotoGP rider and history with Ducati Corse. Whether he deserved it or not, he was a logical choice for the WSBK V4. Call me cynical, call me jaded but looking at what is going on in all 3 classes of MotoGP, I’m certain WSBK has it’s own, similar issues. The writing is on the wall, MotoGP rumoured to be up for sale, affordability at all levels of competition and a serious gap in funding. I still have no idea how the late Paul Bird funded his BSB campaign with BeerMonster as his headline sponsor. Andy
yeah not the best example mate, he was also a millionaire when he went to BSB then won the title in the first year having never raced the tracks and a superbike (he went to Spain at 12 years old) so he was always going to be a big consideration for a top wsbk team
I met Bradley in Almeria a few years ago. Nice chap and happy to pose for selfies, if that's your thing.
Redding had the deal with WSBK if he won the BSB as well and as you say a lot of experiance in the ranks of spanish championships and then up the normal route to GP. I can see it being harder to get into WSBK after next year , few of the GP riders losing seats and coming over. Jack Millar maybe for 2025.
agreed, means they will stay in BSB longer, except they won’t, as they won’t earn any money due to Higgs and palmer greed, so they will just give up and BSB will die. I know it sounds dramatic but it’s literally what happened in 2008 in MotoAmerica, yes it was also financial crisis but it made no sense for riders to go to wsbk and pay for rides, so they stayed there, but then there was no money. Spies said his BASE salary in 2007 in America was 1.8mill dollars…
Even though we are Ducati fan boys Moto gp and wsbk need the other manufacturers Moto gp is terrible currently
