Brad Ray pronounced himself happy with his pace and progress during two days of pre-season testing for what will be his first full season of WorldSBK in 2024.

The 2022 British Superbike Champion [BSB] made his full-time WorldSBK debut in 2023 with the Motoxracing Yamaha team but would complete only eight of the year’s 12 rounds owing to both a combination of the team’s cost-cutting measures and his own injury issues.

Nevertheless, the privateer Italian team has committed to Ray once again for 2024 and will this time compete in all 12 events, including Round 1 in Australia for the first time.

Though he missed out on track time at Jerez last week, Ray was pleased to be up to speed at Portimao, posting competitive lap times that placed him 19th, 1.6secs off the lap record-breaking pace shown by BMW’s Toprak Razgatlioglu.

“Very positive, it is my first time riding since November so we are a couple of days behind,” he told the WorldSBK website. 

“The work was concentrating on getting the bike set-up for racing, the bike is similar to last year but a few small things have changed for this year. I just worked on myself, rather than looked at the time screen.

“I’m feeling good [with my shoulder], he continued “I have worked quite hard over the winter and worked close with Yamaha, so we had a programme this winter and I have been on that and I feel good. Physically I feel like I am in a good way.”