Bradley Ray insists he was just biding his time as he came on strong in the closing stages to claim his eighth win from nine races during the first British Superbike Championship race of the weekend at Knockhill.

The 2022 BSB Champion spent much of his afternoon chasing Rory Skinner and Kyle Ryde in third place after being shuffled down the order early on, but struck emphatically at two-thirds distance.

Inheriting second from Ryde when his Yamaha counterpart ran wide at Taylor’s, Ray attacked Skinner straight away to catch him napping coming around McIntyre’s at the next time of asking.

Once in front Ray sprinted clear to win by 1.8secs over Ryde, the Raceways Yamaha rider revealing he knew he had the pace to stretch away once he could get into clean air and into a rhythm.

“It was a solid race,” he said in his post-race interview. “I didn’t get a very good start, so at that point I just needed to settle into the race. Kyle was strong at the start, Rory passed me quite early on as well. 

“I was happy to sit in third, it’s a long race around here. I just let the laps tick off, then Kyle made a mistake and I was able to get underneath him and that point I knew we needed to attack Rory quite quickly. 

“I felt like I had better pace but I couldn’t pass where I wanted to, so made quite a strong pass into Turn 3 and then got into the rhythm that I knew I could do.”

With eight wins from nine races, Ray holds a comfortable advantage at the head of the overall standings, 32 points clear of Ryde.