Maxi Championship Goes to Arbitration

Galip Atar, who objected to the 2018 Turkish Circuit Racing Championship Maxi Group standings announced on the TOSFED website on Thursday 29 November 2018, has taken the matter to the Arbitration Board of the General Directorate of Sports. In the standings published after Rounds 5 and 6, held at the Serres circuit in Greece, Hakan Mete Kutay is first with 110 points, while Galip Atar is second with 106 points.
Commenting on the matter, national driver Galip Atar said: "The Turkish Circuit Racing Championship, in which we compete in the Maxi Group with the BMW Z4 GT3, has featured a great rivalry between me and my esteemed brother and rival Hakan Mete Kutay, who races the same car. With the 'best 5 out of 6' rule back in the championship this year, we decided to start the season at the second round, even though we had not entered the first. As is known, this rule disregards the two lowest-scoring races and takes as its basis the total of the 10 highest-scoring races out of the 12 in the season. We used that right by skipping the first weekend. We joined the championship believing that our team, by preparing the car in the best condition, would avoid a possible mechanical failure and that we would show our best performance in the remaining races. When we made this decision, senior officials of our federation also stated that starting the season at the second round would not cause any loss in terms of points. At the end of a season we began with the aim of winning the title, thankfully we were able to win 6 of the 10 races we started and to take pole in 4 of the 5 qualifying sessions. We finished all the remaining races in second place and so scored the maximum points. However, our success on track was not reflected in the standings. The class win that our rival achieved in an endurance race in Italy was carried over to the Turkish Circuit Racing Championship group classification as 20 points, equivalent to two race wins. As is known, the Turkish Circuit Racing Championship consists of sprint races run over 20 laps. Endurance races, in which I have also competed abroad many times and won trophies, are not organised in our country. This type of race, in which more than one driver takes turns driving the car and competes as a crew, is a completely different discipline. The Turkish Circuit Racing Championship rules make this clear. When I was offered the chance to take part in the race in Italy as a third driver in the same car, I did not enter, both because of my busy work schedule and because I believed that bringing points from that race into the Turkish Championship was against the rules. However, this non-equivalent type of race gave our rival an extra 4-point advantage in the championship. Another point of objection reflected in the standings concerns qualifying. While the total of 10 races across the 5 rounds is used as the basis in the championship, the qualifying points of the 6th race, which is the one disregarded, have also been added to our rival's total. As is known, qualifying is an inseparable part of a race. The rule also clearly states that qualifying points are added to the relevant race. Yet while the points total of 10 races is being taken, the qualifying points of an 11th race have also been included. After the final race of the season, I raised these issues verbally with federation officials. But after the championship classification was announced in this way, we exercised our right to apply to the arbitration board, the higher authority."

The Maxi Group champion will be officially confirmed once the arbitration board gives its final decision on the matter.