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Donington BSB: Ray powers to first BSB win

Bradley Ray stormed to his first Bennetts British Superbike Championship win after a dramatic last lap at Donington Park.

The Buildbase Suzuki rider overcame pressure from James Ellison to take the win by 0.383s over Shane Byrne, who stole second place second two corners from home.

Ray, who had started the race from seventh position, made a blistering start to push through to third into the first corner, while polesitter Leon Haslam took the lead on his JG Speedfit Kawasaki.

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But it was a bad of a start for Byrne, who wheelied off the line and dropped back to eighth as Ellison’s Anvil Hire TAG Yamaha took the lead halfway through the lap.

Ray moved up to second on the third lap, closing right up to Ellison, before making the move to take the lead on the sixth lap.

Behind, Byrne had regrouped and was starting to pick his way through the order, and soon the top six were looking close.

As the race reached the halfway point, Haslam began to struggle, and started dropping places, losing a handful of places in a couple of laps and then slowly dropping off further.

Byrne was now on a charge, and after a bit of a dice with Dan Linfoot’s Honda he forced his way through at Goddards on the 12th lap for fourth, before diving inside of Luke Mossey at the Hairpin a lap later to move to third.

From there the top three remained the same, and despite Ray gapping the rest by more than a second, Ellison began to catch him up in the final two laps.

Behind, team-mates Linfoot and O’Halloran were scrapping it out for fourth place, but as the last lap began, it suddenly became a battle of three as Byrne closed up to Ellison.

The defending champ once again pounced at the hairpin as he squeezed down the inside of Ellison, but he was unable to make up any more ground, and had to settle for second as Ray took a delighted victory.

Ellison was third, as Linfoot emerged best of the Honda men in fourth, followed across the line by Mossey. Glenn Irwin was sixth ahead of O’Halloran, with Peter Hickman taking eighth on his Smiths BMW.

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Haslam brought his machine home ninth ahead of Michael Laverty who rounded out the top 10.

Kuba Smrz was a non-starter following a crash in qualifying, while series newcomer Sylvain Barrier started his first BSB race from pit lane aboard the Smiths Racing BMW, and Tommy Bridewell and Kyle Ryde both crashed out on the third lap.

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