Kenan Sofuoğlu

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Kenan Sofuoğlu

Kenan Sofuoğlu (born August 25, 1984 in Adapazarı , Turkey ) is a former Turkish motorcycle racer .

In 2007 he won the Supersport World Championship on a Honda , becoming the first Turkish motorcycle world champion in history; In 2010 , 2012 , 2015 and 2016 he was able to repeat this success.

Career

Kenan Sofuoğlu on a Honda CBR1000RR at Brands Hatch (2008)

Kenan Sofuoğlu, who lives in Sakarya / Turkey, won the Yamaha Cup in 2002 and was second in the FIM Superstock 1000 Cup in 2005 behind Didier Van Keymeulen . For the 2006 season he rose to the Supersport World Championship , where he started for the Dutch racing team Ten Kate Honda on a Honda CBR 600 RR . After finishing third in his first World Cup season, Sofuoğlu won the world title in the same team in 2007 . With eight wins and a total of twelve podium places from 13 races and 276 championship points, he set a new record for this class and became the first ever Turkish motorcycle world champion.

For the 2008 season, Kenan Sofuoğlu joined the Ten Kate team in the Superbike World Championship , where he drove one of the Honda CBR1000RRs . In the first races, the Turk consistently finished in the top 15. During the fifth event of the season in Monza , Italy , news of the death of his brother Sinan reached Sofuoğlu , whereupon he immediately left the circuit and traveled to his family. After that he showed very inconsistent performances; his best result was ninth in the first race in the French Magny-Cours . At the last event of the season in Portimão , Portugal , Kenan Sofuoğlu started again in the Supersport class and won the race ahead of teammate Andrew Pitt .

For the 2009 season, Sofuoğlu finally moved back to the Supersport class within the Ten Kate Honda team and drove with three race wins to third place behind Cal Crutchlow and Eugene Laverty . He also improved his number of wins to 14, making him the most victorious Pilot of the Supersport World Championship. In 2010 Sofuoğlu drove at the side of his Italian team-mate Michele Pirro again for Ten Kate in the Supersport class and became world champion for the second time. Although he finished each of the 13 races on the podium, he was still only eleven points ahead of second-placed Irish Eugene Laverty in the final class .

After the end of the season, Kenan Sofuoğlu left his longstanding racing team to switch to the Moto2 class of the motorcycle world championship . He started the last two races of the 2010 season for the Technomag-CIP team , where he drove a Suter instead of Shōya Tomizawa, who had died in an accident . Already at his very first Grand Prix, in Estoril , Portugal , he finished fifth.

In the 2011 season Sofuoğlu started in the Moto2 class for the Technomag-CIP team on Suter. His teammate was the Swiss Dominique Aegerter . At the Dutch TT in Assen , he finished second behind Marc Márquez and achieved the first podium of his career in this class.

In the 2012 season he drove back to the Supersport class. He became world champion for the third time and the sole record holder in this category. He won his fourth world title in the penultimate race of the 2015 season . He dedicated this title to his late son Hamza. In 2016 he managed to defend the title, something that only Sébastien Charpentier had done before him . In 2017 Sofuoğlu missed the first two race weekends after an accident, then won five of the next seven races and took over the championship lead from Lucas Mahias . During qualifying at Magny-Cours, however, he injured himself again and was canceled for the next race. During this time Mahias drove in a fifth and a fourth place, which Kenan still had a theoretical chance of the title at the season finale at the Losail International Circuit with 20 points behind. Against the warning of the doctors, he took part in the race and finished third, which was not enough for the title.

After another serious fall at the beginning of the 2018 season, he ended his career early and announced that he would concentrate on his career as manager and team owner of Puccetti Kawaski in the future. His current protégés are Toprak Razgatlıoğlu (Superbike) as well as Can (Supersport) and Deniz Öncü ( Moto3 ).

Speed ​​record

On June 30, 2016 Sofuoğlu set a new unofficial land speed record for production motorcycles with a modified Kawasaki Ninja H2R . This was carried out on the Osman Gazi Bridge , which is the fourth largest suspension bridge in the world and extends over the Gulf of Izmit . Due to the weather, the record attempt was carried out at 5 a.m. and Sofuoğlu reached the 400 km / h mark with the machine.

Private

Sofuoğlu is married to Julia Looman from the Netherlands and lives in Grevenbroich , but also temporarily in his Turkish hometown of Adapazarı. On June 24, 2018, he was elected to the Turkish parliament as a member of the AKP for Sakarya Province.

statistics

  • 2000 overall victory in the Turkish Supersport Championship
  • 2001 third place in the Turkish Supersport Championship
  • 2002 overall victory in the German Yamaha Cup
  • 2003 second place in the IDM Supersport
  • 2004 third place in the Superstock 1000 EM
  • 2005 second place in the FIM Superstock 1000 Cup
  • 2006 third place in the Supersport World Cup
  • 2007 World Supersport Champion
  • 2008 18th place in the Superbike World Championship
  • 2008 19th place in the Supersport World Championship
  • 2009 third place in the Supersport World Championship
  • 2010 World Supersport Champion
  • 2010 29th place in the Moto2 World Championship
  • 2011 17th place in the Moto2 World Championship
  • 2012 World Supersport Champion
  • 2013 Vice World Champion in the Supersport World Championship
  • 2015 Supersport World Champion
  • 2016 World Supersport Champion
  • 2017 Vice World Champion in the Supersport World Championship

Web links

Commons : Kenan Sofuoğlu  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Sofuoglu manages 400 km / h. In: worldsbk.com. June 30, 2016, accessed August 2, 2016 .