Murat Soyçopur Reviews His 2024 Season

2024 AVIS Turkish Hill Climb Championship Category 3 champion and Atış Motorsport driver Murat Soyçopur looked back on the season for turkmotorspor.com readers...

I started the Eskişehir event feeling very excited, and a little nervous too, because it was the first event of the season and there had been a long break beforehand. As the stage is also a rally stage, it has sections with very different characters. It is very technical, great fun and a little dangerous. I improved my time on every run and managed to finish first.

At the Kartepe event the changing weather conditions had a big influence. The nature of the stage is wide and safe, but the rain made grip very difficult. The conditions changed on every run. I won this event too, with my team's experience and the right tyre choices and set-up playing a big part.

At Buharkent, a snapped belt on the start line of the first run caused steering and charging problems, and I could only just complete the stage and lost a lot of time. When I got back to service the problems were fixed and I set the best time in my class on the next run, but I had dropped back overall and finished fifth. I lost very important points for the season at Buharkent.

What made the Kütahya event special was that, besides my class win, I also took the fastest stage time trophy. Of course, the mechanical problem suffered by strong overall rival Sinan Soylu may have played a part in that :)

Şahintepe is a special event, thanks to its spectators and its traditional stage. In my opinion the stage combines many descriptions and emotions at once: technical, dangerous, fast, fun and difficult. The only negative was that it was a very hot day, which affected us badly. I finished the event second.

At the Kınık event I went off the road on my first practice run. I did not get the fast start I wanted, but on all the practice and race runs after that I set the best time in my class and finished first.

The organisation and stage I liked most this year was Kınık. The event, organised by the İMOK club, was run on time and without any shortcomings. Beyond their success in sporting organisation, they also made us competitors feel special, so I would like to thank all the club staff who worked on it. They gave us many thoughtful moments and memories that took a lot of effort, such as hosting us at a special evening beforehand, accommodating us at the hotel during the event, the local authority and sponsors looking after us, and presenting the sponsor prizes at the end of the event.