The phrase “start them young” is one used quite often, especially in racing, even if it is often used non-seriously. But, when a child drives a Ferrari around a kart track, perhaps it is too far?
The child in question is three-year-old Zayn Sofuoglu. The Sofuoglu name will be well-known among motorcycle racing fans, as his father, Kenan, is a five-times Supersport World Champion, and the greatest rider in the history of the Supersport World Championship.
Sofuoglu - Kenan, that is - was hardly known for his hesitant or reserved approach to racing, in fact his reputation was almost the opposite. Rarely further from a controversial move than he was from a race win, the #54’s ‘all-in’ approach was iconic, and undoubtedly added to his aura as a racer.
This has also been passed down to Sofuoglu’s younger proteges - and we are not talking about just his son, here. Kenan’s nephew, Bahattin Sofuoglu, was one of the most aggressive riders in the generally-very-aggressive World Supersport 300 Championship when he raced it on a Yamaha, and now has taken that aggressive style up to the World Supersport Championship, where he now rides for MV Agusta, alongside the comparatively calm Marcel Schrotter.
One of Bahattin’s fellow WorldSSP riders is Can Oncu, another upcoming Turkish star under the tutelage of Sofuoglu, who at the most recent WorldSBK round in Indonesia took his first-ever World Supersport Championship race win on a Kawasaki. Oncu also has an aggressive reputation, and has hardly made himself many friends with his style of racing.
Before Oncu was in WorldSSP with Kawasaki, he raced the Moto3 World Championship with KTM. Although that started well for the #61, as he became a Grand Prix winner on his World Championship debut - as well as the youngest-ever Grand Prix winner at 15 years and 115 days old - at the 2018 Valencian Grand Prix, his form suffered.
When Can left for WorldSSP, he was replaced in the KTM ranks by his brother, Deniz Oncu, yet another young Turkish rider taking his racing lessons from Mr. Sofuoglu, and yet another known for his aggression on-track.
The greatest product of Kenan Sofuoglu’s school of aggressive racing, however, is Toprak Razgatlioglu, who is arguably the road racer with the most bike skill in the world. Razgatlioglu’s ability to control a motorcycle on the limit is second-to-none. He is able to brake literal metres later than anyone in WorldSBK, including six-time champion Jonathan Rea, float the rear wheel above the ground all the way into a corner, and make overtaking moves that would ordinarily leave people on the floor with (generally) pinpoint accuracy. Watching Razgatlioglu on a scooter, even, is great entertainment, and he’s pretty handy on four wheels, too, it turns out.
Which brings us back to Zayn Sofuoglu, who was riding a Honda Gold Wing not so long ago. He has now graduated to a Ferrari 488 and, at three-years-old, it would be easy to wonder how on Earth this is possible, or why it was allowed to happen. The answer is Kenan Sofuoglu, the personification of the motorcycle racer’s favourite cliche, “110%”, who is intent on creating a generation of Turkish racing stars who compete with the same mentality that made Sofuoglu a five-time World Champion.
