Bradley Ray was in the British Superbike title fight in his first season back in the Championship with Raceways Yamaha.

The 2025 British Superbike Championship saw the 2022 Champion, Bradley Ray, return to the series with the Raceways Yamaha squad, as he wanted to 'enjoy racing again'.

Ray had spent the 2023 and 2024 seasons in the World Superbike Championship, but after two difficult seasons, he was back on his familiar Yamaha R1 around familiar tracks across Britain.

The 28-year-old was back in the Championship fight in his first year back in the series and ended the year second in the British Superbike Championship standings.

"It has been an unbelievable year," Ray told British Superbikes after the final race of the 2025 season.

"I have said to many people, I had a tough couple of years in the World Championship. I told the people around me that I want to come back and enjoy racing again, I want to come back to BSB, enjoy what I am doing, and enjoy what I love. This season has given me that back."

'The team have been unbelievable...'

The start of the 2025 season was a difficult time period for Ray, as his deal with OMG Racing fell through four weeks before the season began.

Two weeks before testing began at Donington Park, Ray and his manager Shane Byrne were able to convince Steve Rodgers and Raceways Yamaha to come out of retirement for the 2025 season.

He stated, "The start of the season was very touch and go, I thought I was all sorted with OMG. But whatever happened there happened, and it left me without a ride for 2025, four weeks before the season was going to start. My manager, Shane [Byrne], rang around to try and get something ticked off for the season. But that late on it is super difficult, and I said to Shane, ‘I need to be on something competitive, if I am going to come back, I want to be able to win races and fight for the Championship’.

"We planted the seed with Steve Rodgers over the phone and went back and forth a bit to get things up and running. He basically said two weeks before the first test at Donington, ‘Yep, yep, we will go driver’ and that was it. Even if we had to pull up in the back of the van, we would get the bike sorted. To be honest, it has been one of the best seasons of my racing career. The team have been unbelievable, Steve has been a top bloke, to come out of retirement just to help me. He said to me, ‘Look, driver, I am not doing this for anyone else, but I will do it for you. But that is it’. That means a lot to me, and shows how much faith and belief he has in me as a rider."

'Sometimes things happen that are out of your control...'

Ray won ten of the opening twelve races in the season, but after this Ray's strong form hit a wall as he crashed out of the lead of Race Two at Brands Hatch.

After his first hiccup in the 2025 season, Ray only won two more races and featured on eight more podiums across the rest of the 20 races in the year.

"We tried our best this season to give Steve the Championship, which he deserves for sure," he explained.

"There is no doubt that we have been super fast all year; we have had the most wins, probably the most podiums, fastest laps, and poles. But sometimes in racing, some things don’t always go your way.

"Unfortunately, sometimes things happen that are out of your control. A few times this year that has happened, no fault of the team, no fault of myself, just how it is. I can’t be sour about it. We have had an unbelievable season, and we have finished second. We had an incredible battle with Kyle [Ryde]."

'I had to dig in and fight hard...'

Coming into the final round of the season, Ray was 30 points behind his title rival, Kyle Ryde, in the Championship standings.

After beating his rival in two of the three races, it was not enough for Ray to overturn the Championship deficit, and he ended the year 20 points behind Ryde in the standings.

"The pressure was on this weekend, and I needed to deliver," Ray stated.

"In the last race, I knew what I had to do; if Kyle was to have an issue, or not finish the race, or finish outside of the points, then I needed to be first or second to win the Championship. I had to dig in and fight hard in those conditions, which is not easy when you have not had any wet track time all weekend.

"It has been an incredible season, a big thanks to Yamaha, to Steve, to all my boys, to Mum and Dad, the family, and my other half; she has helped me a lot this year."