Karting Season Gets Under Way

With little time left before the opening of the karting season, let us continue the season review I began in my first piece with the Prokart championship.
Where each round in previous years was a single six-hour race, this time it has returned to a format in which the round winner is decided over three two-hour races. As always, the Prokart season, which sees big entries and fierce competition, is a championship contested by teams of at least two drivers, with driver changes taking place during the race. The battle for the title, which was fought between three teams for much of the 2015 season, ended in the final race with Kuzey Yıldızı team taking the championship. In the category run as the Incentive Class, it was Deniz Yıldızı team, which can be considered a sister team to the overall winners, that came out on top.

While that was happening in Prokart in 2015, the Prokart organising club İKOK (Istanbul Karting and Automobile Club) entered the 2016 season under new management, with Osman Aydemir taking over the reins from Ertuğrul Ersin. After a very busy preparation period following his appointment as club president, Osman Aydemir launched the Sportif Karting project and looks set to deliver some successful work in the 2016 season.

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News of international success arriving before the season has even properly started has given us reason for early optimism. Our driver Mert Dalkıran, who will start in the junior category in the 2016 FIA-CIK Academy Trophy races, returned with a trophy from the Greek Championship, which he entered as preparation. Racing in an atmosphere he already knew, within the Greek Rotax Max Challenge, Mert took the junior category runner-up trophy and showed he is a contender for the Academy Trophy races. Another of our representatives in the same race, Pars Erdem, came away with valuable experience from his first international race.

Another of our international drivers, Berkay Besler, who did not stay away from racing during the winter months, opened the season with the Rotax Max Winter Cup in Spain. Having earned the right to start the pre-final in first place and the first final in second, Berkay dropped back to 24th in the chaos at the start of the same race. After that incident, an outstanding performance took the driver up to 16th and set the fastest lap of the race, showing great determination for this season. Berkay's next international race was the Belgian Rotax Max Championship, and from the event at the Genk circuit the driver left with the Senior Max category winner's trophy. Another of our representatives on track the same weekend, Ömer Asaf Kolot, put smiles on faces with fifth place in the Micro Max category.

With all that happening on the international stage, after the long winter break the first race of the 2016 Turkish Karting Championship starts this weekend (12-13 March) and will be held at the Karting Circuit inside Körfez Yarış Pisti. We have also learned that a Prokart preparation race will be held during the Turkish Karting Championship weekend.

We invite all karting fans to Körfez Yarış Pisti this weekend...

See you there...
Erkan Ertuğrul
erkanert@gmail.com