Taking spectacles to the World Superbike Championships

A Brighton optometry practice has been supporting the career ambitions of Britain’s superbike champion.

Bradley Ray, who claimed the British superbike title in October 2022, is competing in the European rounds of the world championships.

Ray, 25, has been attending Eyesite Brighton, a Hakim Group independent practice and part of the Eyesight group, since the age of 14.

Through the practice, Ray, who first needed spectacles at 18 months old and has been racing since the age of four, was provided with a pair of personalised racing spectacles.

Jim Green, managing director at Eyesight Brighton, explained: “Bradley is the only biker on the world circuit who wears eyewear while racing, and we like to think of that as his superpower.”

With what the practice has called a ‘phenomenal’ prescription, and the demands of superbike racing, Ray was recommended the Oakley Trajectory 8171 frame in satin black.

Green shared that the frames’ “super sports fitting means they’ve got at least three points of contact on the face so they stay on when he’s going round the corners.”

Ray also has personalised Essilor Eyezen lenses with Crizal Sapphire treatment, which are curved to fit the frame and designed to provide 170 degrees of clear vision, water and scratch resistance.

The practice provides tests required for Ray’s specialist motorsport licence, and, if he is involved in an accident, he receives an optical coherence tomography check as a priority.

Ray told OT in 2021: “There was a period where I thought that I may not be able to compete professionally, as there was no-one on the grid that even wore glasses, never mind had my unique prescription.”

“When I first put on those personalised racing specs it was almost like seeing again, everything was crystal clear,” Ray shared. “Since that first visit to Eyesite, I have never once thought that my glasses would stop me competing at the highest level.”