Buğra Joins World Rally Championship Junior Ranks

Having finished the 2017 season as European Rally Team champions, Castrol Ford Team Türkiye is setting sail for new goals in 2018.

Castrol Ford Team Türkiye is preparing to compete in the Junior and WRC2 categories of the World Rally Championship in 2018. For more than 20 years the team has been bringing a new generation of young drivers into rallying in Turkey, and it is now taking that mission to a global level, putting its name to a long-term set-up that will give young Turkish drivers the chance to compete in the world classification in the years ahead.
With the WRC returning to Turkey in 2018 after an eight-year break, with Rally Marmaris, Castrol Ford Team Türkiye will proudly fly the Turkish flag at this major event. Murat Bostancı and Onur Vatansever will represent the team in the WRC2 category, while Buğra Banaz and Burak Erdener will contest the Junior World Rally Championship (JWRC), which has an age limit of 28. Given that almost all the drivers of the factory teams chasing the World Rally Championship title came through the JWRC, Turkey's representation at this important event carries added significance.

Buğra Banaz and Burak Erdener will open their season at Rally Corsica in France on 5-8 April, competing in the 4x2 Fiesta R2T, powered by Ford's EcoBoost petrol engine technology, which has won International Engine of the Year awards for the last six years.

The World Rally Championship WRC2 category, where Murat Bostancı and Onur Vatansever will compete, is the class with the highest level of participation and competition. The crew will begin their season at Rally Portugal on 17-20 May, again with an award-winning EcoBoost engine, in the 4x4 Fiesta R5.

Serdar Bostancı: "Our aim is to give Turkish motorsport even more momentum"

Castrol Ford Team Türkiye Team Director Serdar Bostancı, who stressed that last year the team achieved something that had never been done before, shared his feelings about the 2018 season and the move into the World Rally Championship:

"First of all, I would like to thank once again our federation president Serkan Yazıcı and everyone who contributed to bringing a major sporting event like the World Rally Championship back to our country after such a long break of eight years, with Rally Turkey to be held in Marmaris on 13-16 September. As Castrol Ford Team Türkiye, we are raising our targets on the back of this big event coming to our country and the experience gained from last year's European Team Championship title, and we are proud to be competing in the World Rally Championship from the 2018 season. Our road is long and not easy, but as we have done consistently for 20 years, with good planning we believe that within five years a rally driver from Turkey can challenge for the top places in the World Rally Championship, and we are now making all our plans to achieve this. I thank all our sponsors, and the president and officials of the motorsport federation, for the support they have given to this important project, which we expect to give serious momentum to the development of motorsport in Turkey."

We wish our drivers and the team every success in the 2018 World Rally Championship.