Looking Back at the 2015 Karting Season

With the 2016 season yet to begin, I was delighted when I was asked to write the karting articles for Türk Motorspor, a new motorsport portal. How could I not be! For a full 15 years I have been involved in the karting community as a marshal, scrutineer, clerk of the course, event director, championship director, personal coach and, most recently, a member of the media, so the excitement and responsibility of giving karting a voice was considerable.

Forgive me if I stumble, and let me begin my first article with a review of the past season;
While the 2015 season got under way with problems similar to those of the last few seasons, chief among them the low number of competitors, this did not prevent some great battles during the year. In particular, two young names in the mini class, 2014 mini class champion Zekai Özen and 2014 runner-up Pars Erol Erdem, once again gave karting fans some enjoyable racing in 2015. The fight was not confined to those two, however: Ömer Asaf Kolot looked considerably quicker than in previous seasons and at times signalled that he could challenge for podiums and even wins. As expected, the title fight went down to the end of the season between Zekai Özen and Pars Erol Erdem, as it had the year before, but this time it was Pars Erol Erdem who crossed the line ahead and lifted the championship trophy.

The Formula Junior class, with only 2 drivers racing all season, lacked the close competition everyone wanted, and Mert Dalkıran was the one to take the trophy at the end of the year. In Formula Senior, where relatively more drivers took the start, our international pride Berkay Besler came out on top at the end of the season, and running this class together with Formula Master gave us fuller grids and tighter racing. In the Master class, İzmir driver Mehmet Yaman took the title at the end of the season.

In the Rotax Max DD2 (geared) class, run as part of the Turkish Karting Championship, a smaller entry than in previous years did nothing to dampen the intensity of the fight. At the end of 2015 Berk Durak was the happy name in DD2, while in DD2 Master Kerem Zengin once again came out on top.

The drivers who will represent our country at the Rotax Max Grand Final, held at the end of every season with close to 300 drivers from 60 countries, were Junior champion Mert Dalkıran, Senior champion Berkay Besler, DD2 champion Berk Durak and DD2 Master champion Kerem Zengin. At the Grand Final in Portimão, Portugal, our drivers once again worked hard to represent our flag in the best possible way. As expected, Berkay Besler was the standout performer in the heats, starting the semi-final from first place and finishing that race second. In the final, after a stroke of bad luck left him down in 16th place in the middle of the race, Berkay's determination and fighting spirit saw him finish the final in 8th place.

I won't make this first article too long, and I'm leaving prokart and some other reviews for my next piece...

Farewell
Erkan Ertuğrul
erkanert@gmail.com