Bradley Ray dominated this afternoon’s second Bennetts British Superbike free practice, leading almost the entire session as the only rider to clock a 53-second lap.
The Buildbase Suzuki rider controlled the order almost immediately, and ended up fending off Jake Dixon and Christian Iddon by over a tenth of a second with his 53.867.
Iddon topped the timesheets early on ahead of first practice fast-man Josh Brookes, with Moto Rapido Ducati’s Tommy Bridewell and Taylor Mackenzie slotting in behind during the first few laps.
But Ray shot to the top with a 54.275 before a lull in action, after which JG Speedfit Kawasaki’s Luke Mossey broke into the top-10 with a 54.686 to go fifth quickest.
Brookes pulled off at Copse with a technical problem, but was soon underway again before Smiths Racing’s Peter Hickman knocked him back to fourth with a 54.543.
FS-3 Racing Kawasaki’s Danny Buchan went 10th quickest as Leon Haslam slotted into seventh, but with just over 20 minutes remaining Jason O’Halloran gave the Honda Racing squad some hope with a 54.518 as he knocked Hickman out of the top three.
With 15 minutes to go, Linfoot joined O’Halloran as he slotted in behind his Aussie team-mate to go fourth quickest. Meanwhile, McAMS Yamaha’s Taz Mackenzie clocked the 10th fastest lap before RAF Regular and Reserves man Jake Dixon pushed him back to 11th, only for Mackenzie to blast back up the timesheets and slot into fifth.
Glenn Irwin made a late charge with nine minutes left as he and younger brother Andrew moved up to fifth and sixth, respectively. And just as Glenn moved up to third, James Ellison and Richard Cooper hauled themselves up from the dredges of the top 20 to move into sixth and seventh.
Hickman split Ellison and Cooper moments later, but with less than two minutes to go the top 10 was all change as Haslam set the fourth quickest lap before Dixon went just 0.001s quicker to move ahead.
But Dixon’s tear wasn’t finished, and he stuck in a 54.003 to move up to second moments later.
Ray, however, only bettered his early leading lap to beat Dixon to the top spot with a 53.867 as Iddon remained in third.
O’Halloran’s 54.198 was good enough for fourth, while Glenn Irwin held onto fifth ahead of Haslam and Hickman.
Gino Rea was only 0.017s further back, while Mackenzie and Michael Laverty completed the top 10.
