Castrol Ford Team Turkey, which made its name in history by winning the European championship for Turkey, opened the 25 season, which celebrated its 2022th year full of success, with the Bodrum Rally.
In the organization, which was the first race of the Turkish Rally Championship, the team participated in the full squad with its young talents and dominated the podium of the Junior classification.
Bodrum Rally, the first leg of the 2022 Shell Helix Turkey Rally Championship, was held with great interest between April 15-17 this year. Castrol Ford Team Turkey, Turkey's first and only European champion rally team, competed as a full squad in the organization, which is the first race of the 2022 TOSFED Rally Cup, which will be named after the late Oğuz Gürsel, one of the veterans of automobile sports.
The race, which started with the ceremonial start from Bodrum Municipality Square on Friday, April 15, was planned to complete 6 different special stages, which will be run for the first time this year, on the dirt-covered forest roads of the Bodrum peninsula, twice during the weekend. However, Sunday's stages were canceled due to the fire in Dereköy before the first stage started on Sunday morning. In the Bodrum Rally, the results of which were determined according to the races on Saturday, the young pilots of Castrol Ford Team Turkey, which renewed its pilot staff to a large extent last year with the aim of supporting young stars in Turkish rally sport and became even younger, dominated the podium in the “Youth classification”.
Castrol Ford Team Turkey's 1999-born Ali Türkkan and experienced co-pilot Burak Erdener, who won the European Rally Cup 'Youth' and 'Two Wheel Drive' Championships to our country last year, finished third on the podium in the Bodrum Rally in his first race in the Ford Fiesta R5 seat. The young Castrol Ford Team Turkey pilot and Redbull athlete, who showed that he started to get used to his new vehicle by increasing his speed at each stage, signaled that he will be a partner in the championship in the future races as the winner of the "Young Drivers class".
Efehan Yazıcı, born in 1999, took the second place in the Young Pilots classification in his first race in the Ford Fiesta Rally4 seat with his co-pilot Güray Akgün, while Can Sarıhan, born in 1998, finished third in the Young Pilots classification with his co-pilot Sevi Akal in the Fiesta R2T.
Ümitcan Özdemir, who has won back-to-back championships with his Fiesta R2T car in the 2-wheel drive class in recent years under Castrol Ford Team Turkey, and his co-driver Batuhan Memişyazıcı, on the seat of the Ford Fiesta R5, finished fifth behind his teammates, giving the team valuable points.
Fiesta Rally Cup continues at full speed with its new concept
In the “Fiesta Rally Cup”, Turkey's longest running single brand rally cup, which started together with the Bodrum Rally, Erol Akbaş took the lead with his 4-wheel drive Fiesta Rally3 vehicle. While Akbaş won the RC3 class in which Rally3 cars competed in Bodrum Rally, he came to the finish in the top 10 in the general classification. Kağan Karamanoğlu, who won the Fiesta Rally Cup last year, placed second this year with his two-wheel drive Ford Fiesta R2T, and showed his claim by being among the top 2 in the Bodrum Rally with his two-wheel drive Fiesta R10T vehicle. Efe Ünver came third in the Fiesta Rally Cup with his Fiesta Rally3 car.
The other pilots of Castrol Ford Team Turkey competing in the “Fiesta Rally Cup” are the same. zamIt achieved great success in the 2022 TOSFED Rally Cup, which was run alongside the Turkish Rally Championship at the time. Hakan Gürel won the first place in the TOSFED Rally Cup with Fiesta R2, and Levent Sapcılar became the second with Fiesta R1T19 in the cup.
Bostancı: “We are proud to be the youngest rally team in Turkey”
Castrol Ford Team Turkey's champion pilot Murat Bostancı, who switched from the pilot's seat to the pilot's coaching seat, made the following evaluations about the Bodrum Rally:
“We successfully passed the Bodrum Rally, which was run as the first leg of the Turkey Rally, which is very important to us. Despite the fact that it was a very difficult race that our pilots ran for the first time under unpredictable conditions, we showed how assertive we are with our success, especially in the youth category. It was a valuable experience and a good start for us. We are proud to be the youngest rally team in Turkey with an average age of 22. In this special year, in which we celebrate our 25th Anniversary as Castrol Ford Team Turkey, we aim to become the 2022 Turkish Rally Brands Championship, 2022 Turkish Drivers' Championship, 2022 Turkey Rally Young Drivers' Championship and 2022 Turkey Rally Two-Wheel Drive Champion with our young pilots. Our goal is to bring our country to a more competitive level in the European and World Championships with our young pilots in the coming years.”
2022 Turkey Rally Championship Calendar:
- 28-29 May Yeşil Bursa Rally (Asphalt)
- 25-26 June Eskişehir Rally (Asphalt)
- 30-31 July Kocaeli Rally (Ground)
- 17-18 September Istanbul Rally (Ground)
- 15-16 October Aegean Rally (Asphalt)
- 12-13 November (To be Announced Later)
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