Lydd’s Bradley Ray was weather beaten in the Superbike World Championship’s latest round at Magny-Cours in France.

Yamaha Motoxracing’s Ray was running as high as eighth in a wet race one, but was caught out by the rain on lap 13 and crashed out of contention. He had earlier set the 12th-fastest time in the Superpole, a 1min54.968sec effort, to line up on the third row of the grid with points within his grasp.

“Qualifying was the best session I’ve had all season,” Ray said.

“The race was tough, though, with a lot of water on track. Unfortunately, I crashed out of eighth place just as I was trying to pass riders ahead of me. I’m really disappointed, but this is racing.”

The Superpole race on Sunday started badly, with Ray pushed off track on lap one. Once up and running again, he worked hard to recover, climbing to an eventual 15th.

In race two, Ray started well but lost ground that he was never able to regain. Struggling to maintain a consistently fast pace, he crossed the line in 17th place.

“The Magny Cours weekend has definitely not been our best,” Ray added.

“I suffered a bad crash in race one and I wasn’t in ideal shape today. That aside, we need to find a way to be competitive in the races. We have some new ideas that will help us as we prepare for the Cremona round.

“That track will be new to me, so I’ll need to learn it fast during practice.”

Ray, 25th in the championship with three points, continues his season on September 20-22 at the Cremona circuit in Italy.