Kind of…seems confusing to me: gives up potential chance to retain BSB title for an 8 Euro rounds ride in wsbk?! Reigning Bennetts British Superbike Champion Bradley Ray will make the move to the World stage next season after Yamaha Motor Europe has announced he will join the FIM Superbike World Championship in 2023 for the eight European rounds with the Yamaha Motoxracing WorldSBK Team. https://www.britishsuperbike.com/ne...yOrvdHZYpBIE-xPQ1Ze6_gWxYDsJ7HiNTtuV_AQn1GQes
Yep, strange move… also, bit of a kick in tbe teeth for Taz that Bradley at least got offered something and he didn’t (I assume)
I can smell the BS. A one year contract to compete in 8 of the 12 rounds (no fly aways). BR has no race experience on the european circuits and no experience of setting up a bike with electronics. Mmmm, let me think about this ……… Andy
You wonder if he’s been sold a pup…or it’s until the team get the funds for others rounds depending on his results Can’t see him being much better than top 10 first year
Good luck to Brad. It’s an opportunity to show what he can do and hopefully it will lead to bigger and better things. Onwards and upwards.
Many which the WSBK circus don’t go to. Riding a full WSBK spec will be an entirely different to riding a 125cc and 250cc. Andy
And?? So what? The guy is a racer trying to progress his career forward. Because he hasn’t ridden a wsbk spec bike he shouldn’t go there?? Can’t really understand the point your trying to make
My point, for what it’s worth, IMO it’s too soon to shoot for WSBK fame, Bradley doesn’t have the racecraft to live with many of the riders in that championship and it’s not a particularly good contract. WSBK is not a stepping stone without the raw natural talent of someone like Toprak and I’m not convinced when he does go, even he’ll be that successful. In my memory, the only WSBK rider who had some success in MotoGP was Colin Edwards and Troy Bayliss was the one WSBK rider who should have got a MotoGP ride and didn’t. Andy
I think it’s a logical step. He will gain experience on Wsbk hardware and European circuits - it’s his chance to get a full factory ride. The alternative would be to stay in BSB and defend his title - but what if that didn’t go as planned? Injury or simply a poor result could close the Wsbk window for him and he could have lost his chance. I can’t see how he could have made another choice.
Yes, it looks like I’m wrong. I remember in recognition of his WSBK championship in 2006, he got a wild card ride at the last round of the MotoGP at Valencia. He made every rider there look average on the day but didn’t get a Ducati MotoGP contract. Andy
I'm sure he did, 2003 and 2004, think he got the push in 2004, replaced by check? 2005 on the camal honda
Tbf he’s been racing for over 11 years, May even be more than 15. I don’t think he’ll have an issue with race craft, more whether he quickly gets to hand with electronics and some of the added chassis adjustability. If the bike rides like his and he gets on with the electronics, no reason he can’t be pushing occasional top 5
