President Yazıcı: "2018 Was the Golden Year of Our Sport"

The 2018 TOSFED Gala Night, at which the drivers and teams who finished on the podium in the national series across all disciplines received their awards, began with an opening speech by federation president Serkan Yazıcı. Describing 2018 as the golden year of motorsport, President Serkan Yazıcı said he was delighted to be together with all of the sport's stakeholders on such a special evening. "In the coming period we will carry on supporting our clubs, as we always have. We place real importance on our national team drivers, our young talents and the TOSFED Yıldızını Arıyor project, so we expect these young talents to be supported. This is an evening where every discipline and category is rewarded, but among us there are youngsters who, when given support, make us very proud with their results on the international stage. Our young talent Ayhancan Güven made us extremely proud again this season with three championship titles. The title he won together with team-mate Salih Yoluç at the Nations Cup in Bahrain in particular excited us even more. It shows that the success young Turks achieve in the world can change how the whole of Turkey looks at this sport. That is very important for us. We are fully confident that we will achieve even more success in the new season. Both for our drivers and for Turkey as a whole, we have left behind a year full of achievements in motorsport," he said.
Yazıcı said they had successfully hosted the World Rally Championship on its return to Turkey after an eight-year absence, and that they were proud that Rally Turkey, held in Marmaris, ranked among the most successful events on the 2018 World Rally Championship calendar, drawing international attention to the country. "I would like to thank our President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, our Minister Dr Mehmet Muharrem Kasapoğlu, all units of our state and our federation officials, who have always supported us on this path. Our main aim is to carry the success and momentum we gained with Rally Turkey into 2019. We will continue to put into practice projects that will contribute to the development of motorsport and to develop our ongoing projects. For 2020, we have a big dream. This project, whose meetings are continuing, is a cross country race stretching from Istanbul all the way to Baku..." he said.