Bradley Ray made it eight wins for the season as he saw off the threat from Kyle Ryde and Rory Skinner to claim victory in the first race of Round 4 for the 2025 British Superbike Championship [BSB] at Knockhill.

The runaway championship leader bided his time by spending much of the race shadowing Ryde and Skinner ahead of him before a big push at two-thirds saw him relieve Skinner and romp home to the flag.

Maintaining his record of winning all-but-one so far this season, Ray led home defending champion Ryde for a Yamaha 1-2, with Skinner trailing in third for his third podium of the season.

In his first BSB race since 2019, Scott Redding produced a fine performance to build on his sixth place starting position and take home fourth place on the Hager PBM Ducati.

In a season that has seen Ray chase another level over his opposition thus far, the initial stages of Race 1 around the short, twisting Scottish circuit nevertheless appeared to suggest a different outcome was in the offing as Ryde and Skinner shared duties in the lead for much of the encounter.

Indeed, pole man Ray had been beaten off the line by Ryde on the drop into Duffers Dip and while the 2022 BSB Champion squeezed through on lap three, his OMG Nitrous Yamaha counterpart simply returned the favour with a block-pass into McIntyre’s moments later.

With their feuding keeping the close-following Skinner interested in the lead battle, the Cheshire Mouldings TAS Ducati rider promptly worked his way into contention, relieving Ray of second with a late-braking move into Taylor’s on lap six.

It was a pass - one honed through his intimate experience of riding around his beloved local venue - Skinner would call upon again on lap 11, the Scotsman catching Ryde unawares to slither up the inside and move to the front.

As the race tipped into its second-half though, Ryde attempted to hurry things up with a lunge at Skinner into Taylor’s, only to run past the Ducati and out wide, in turn ceding second to Ray instead.

Releasing Ray onto the tail of Skinner, he wasted no time in mounting his attack with a forceful overtake into McIntyre’s that while clean, was enough to sit his rival up and out wide on the exit, enabling Ryde back into second place at his expense.

It meant Ray now found himself in front and with the first meaningful gap back to second place to the tune of half-a-second.

Enough to break any potential tow around Knockhill’s short-blast straights, Ray got his head down to pump in a series of fastest laps and stretch the advantage out over Ryde.

It was a lead he’d protect to the finish, Ray winding up 1.8secs clear of Ryde, while a disgruntled Skinner eased up in the closing stages to protect his podium, some 3.8secs off the win.

The result means Ray continues to build on his advantage at the head of the standings, even if Ryde - who has now been second to his rival in five of those eight wins - stays with modest range, some 32 points behind.

In a boost for Yamaha, however, Ray and Ryde’s closest rival in Leon Haslam could only manage a lowly 13th, the Moto Rapido Ducati rider slipping 53 points off the front, while Skinner rises to fourth at the expense of the absent Glenn Irwin.

Behind the podium contenders, Redding looked as though he’d never been away as he got stuck into battles en route to a highly creditable fourth place.

The 2019 BSB Champion got away well from sixth on the grid to run fourth early on and despite losing that spot to Storm Stacey when he got out of shape at Taylor’s on lap eight, he’d hunt the Bathams AJN BMW rider down to get the spot back before the end.

Despite being dogged in his defence of fourth place, Redding’s pass would ultimately signal a minor descent for Stacey late on with both Tommy Bridewell and Josh Brookes getting the better of him for fifth and sixth.

Charlie Nesbitt trailed Stacey in eighth place, while Lee Jackson won out in a battle with Andrew Irwin as they completed the top ten.

Elsewhere, Fraser Rogers claimed some scalps in 11th after resisting the attentions of Danny Kent and out-of-sorts Haslam, while Max Cook and John McPhee recovered to 14th and 15th after their qualifying dramas.

Christian Iddon was the only notable failure to finish, the AJN Steelstock Kawasaki rider coming down on lap one at McIntyre after clipping the rear of Irwin’s Honda.