BSB: Haslam holds off resurgent Ray for Cadwell win

Leon Haslam took his eighth victory of the 2018 Bennetts British Superbike season after getting the better of a resurgent Bradley Ray at Cadwell Park.

The JG Speedfit Kawasaki star took an early lead ahead of the polesitter, but Ray moved ahead at Park on lap four with Jake Dixon, Danny Buchan and Glenn Irwin behind.

Danny Buchan’s strong weekend came to a premature end in race one as he dramatically crashed out of fifth at the mountain bottom.

The race would be momentarily paused with a safety car intervention on lap five after a crash for Chrissy Rouse through the Hall Bends.

As action resumed with the battle closed up, Ray led Haslam, Irwin and Dixon.

Haslam looked for a way around Ray at Park on lap 14 but ran wide, but would eventually make the move stick on the penultimate lap. While Ray hooked on to the back of the Kawasaki, he was unable to find a way back past and was forced to settle for second.

Jake Dixon had looked to be the man on the move in the closing stages, but an aborted pass on Bradley Ray on lap 16 at Charlie’s saw him run wide and drop back to fifth. Pushing on in the final stages, he recovered to take third from Irwin at the hairpin on the final lap.

Tommy Bridewell took an impressive fifth place for the MotoRapido Ducati squad with Christian Iddon completing the top six.

Local ace Peter Hickman was seventh ahead of rookie Tarran Mackenzie while James Ellison and Josh Brookes rounded out the top ten.