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World Superbike
WSS: Kenan Sofuoglu - Different Path
Turkish rider Kenan Sofuoglu is not your typical roadracing world champion.
Double WSS champ Kenan Sofuoglu (Photo: Kawasaki Racing)
Until Turkey’s Kenan Sofuoglu (27) started impacting on the WSS record books a few seasons ago, riders from the vast country that straddles both the European West and the Asian East were hard to spot. The reason was simple. Kenan and his family virtually invented the concept of there being a top class Turkish motorcycle racer in the first place.
Nineteen WSS career wins, 45 podiums from 65 starts, and two World Championships with another manufacturer in both 2007 and 2010 mean that Sofuoglu has now reinvented the word ‘success’ in WSS terms.
He’s still at it, leading the standings on his Kawasaki Lorenzini Ninja ZX-6R as he has for most of the year.
Along the way he has had to put up with a recurring left knee injury that would have floored lesser men, faced tough competition all the way and even more recently he’s had some restrictions in his day-to-day life that very few bike racers can even imagine.
Ramadan
As a devout follower of Islam, Sofuoglu observes Ramadan, a month of fasting in the daylight hours. Hardly what a sports scientist would recommend in the run-up to races.
As Kenan explains, his religious observance is non-optional but, to a degree, flexible.
“Ramadan is very important for Muslim people, for us it is the most important month in the year. It is a little bit difficult because it is already in the summer and days are hot and long, but at the end of the daylight it is good because then we can start eating and we have a celebration every night. Up to Thursday, as the race weekend approaches, I still observe Ramadan. But Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I treat those like a normal day and I am eating and drinking regularly because it is necessary for the energy of the body. But at the end of Ramadan I have six days I have ‘borrowed’, for the two races, so I will do six extra days of Ramadan.”
A Whole New World
Having started his international career in Germany, in a one make series that he won despite a slow start; Sofuoglu’s career has encompassed Superstock 1000 racing, WSBK, WSS, Moto2, and now a return to WSS. It has also encompassed loss and even simple loneliness that has molded him into a tough and effective competitor, for whom losing is not an option. It never was.
His racing life story is best told by the man himself.
“There were three of us brothers racing in Turkey. My family decided as I was the youngest one that I should go to Europe. But we did not have so much money. We found out that there was a way to do it by paying about 12,000 Euros for a one make Yamaha Cup series in Germany. In the beginning I was really slow, not even in the top ten. But after two races I got really strong and then I won every race and then the championship.”
It was a hard year for a young man away from home and in a different cultural world.
“I did not have a rich family behind me and I did not know anything about Germany, I did not know German or English languages, it was really difficult but I cannot stop because all the family put everything on me. I think at this time all the hard things made me strong for the future. I loved racing but I had no other option but to race. All these kinds of things give me the feeling that I must do it even after many hard things in my life.”
Nineteen WSS career wins, 45 podiums from 65 starts, and two World Championships with another manufacturer in both 2007 and 2010 mean that Sofuoglu has now reinvented the word ‘success’ in WSS terms.
He’s still at it, leading the standings on his Kawasaki Lorenzini Ninja ZX-6R as he has for most of the year.
Along the way he has had to put up with a recurring left knee injury that would have floored lesser men, faced tough competition all the way and even more recently he’s had some restrictions in his day-to-day life that very few bike racers can even imagine.
Ramadan
As a devout follower of Islam, Sofuoglu observes Ramadan, a month of fasting in the daylight hours. Hardly what a sports scientist would recommend in the run-up to races.
As Kenan explains, his religious observance is non-optional but, to a degree, flexible.
“Ramadan is very important for Muslim people, for us it is the most important month in the year. It is a little bit difficult because it is already in the summer and days are hot and long, but at the end of the daylight it is good because then we can start eating and we have a celebration every night. Up to Thursday, as the race weekend approaches, I still observe Ramadan. But Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I treat those like a normal day and I am eating and drinking regularly because it is necessary for the energy of the body. But at the end of Ramadan I have six days I have ‘borrowed’, for the two races, so I will do six extra days of Ramadan.”
A Whole New World
Having started his international career in Germany, in a one make series that he won despite a slow start; Sofuoglu’s career has encompassed Superstock 1000 racing, WSBK, WSS, Moto2, and now a return to WSS. It has also encompassed loss and even simple loneliness that has molded him into a tough and effective competitor, for whom losing is not an option. It never was.
His racing life story is best told by the man himself.
“There were three of us brothers racing in Turkey. My family decided as I was the youngest one that I should go to Europe. But we did not have so much money. We found out that there was a way to do it by paying about 12,000 Euros for a one make Yamaha Cup series in Germany. In the beginning I was really slow, not even in the top ten. But after two races I got really strong and then I won every race and then the championship.”
It was a hard year for a young man away from home and in a different cultural world.
“I did not have a rich family behind me and I did not know anything about Germany, I did not know German or English languages, it was really difficult but I cannot stop because all the family put everything on me. I think at this time all the hard things made me strong for the future. I loved racing but I had no other option but to race. All these kinds of things give me the feeling that I must do it even after many hard things in my life.”
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