I’d like to spend a little bit of your time talking about a favourite rider of mine. Turkish rider, Kenan Sofoglu (known to many by the nickname that heads this article) has the most successful record in World Supersport racing winning three World Championships (2007, 2010 and 2012) and is currently leading in this year’s title chase as well.
Kenan was born in Turkey in 1984 and joined “the circus” full time in 2006 and made an immediate impression. Riding for the super successful Ten Kate team out of the Netherlands, he was an able replacement for the injury struck Sebastien Charepentier who had previously brought the team two titles. Others to win SSP titles for Ten Kate had been Australian riders Chris Vermeulen and Karl Muggeridge, and Frenchman, Fabien Foret so there was an expectation as well as a hope that he would keep the TK flag flying.
And keep it flying he did. With victories in 5 of the first 8 races of the 2007 season and creating a new record for the number of wins in a season in the class, Kenan clinched the title with three races to go, an outstanding achievement in the most fiercely contested class in the championship. Along the way he also became the first Turkish rider to win a major world championship in any form of motorsports, and, in doing so, assured himself of hero status in his home country.
A flirtation with the Superbike championship in the following year was unsuccessful and he returned to WSS in 2009 but wasn’t able to lift the title, finishing 3rd after a series-long battle with Cal Crutchlow and Eugene Laverty.
He returned to his best in 2010 by finishing on the podium in every race and was again crowned World Champion. In 2011 he had an unsuccessful tilt at Moto2 but, like his previous attempt at Superbikes, it was a disappointment and he returned again to WSS to win the championship for a third time, this time with Kawasaki.
In 2013 he had to settle for second place behind the Briton, Sam Lowes, and, in 2014, it was his worst season in the class ever, finishing 8th with only one win, some 130 points behind the winner, Ten Kate’s Michel van der Mark on a Honda.
In 2015, he has bounced right back to his best. At 31 years old and with a wealth of experience of the super touchy 600’s, he has toughed it out with the best of them and is the points leader at the time of writing. He is presently fighting off a determined challenge from the French star, Jules Cluzel but didn’t do himself any favours last weekend at Misano by recording a DNF while Cluzel took maximum points. With 8 races out of the scheduled 13 rounds completed, he has a slender (less than one win) points lead of 20 points and is only 40 points ahead of the American P J Jacobsen. He will have to draw on all of his legendary toughness to win his 4th title. It’s going to be a fascinating last half of the season.
Such are the statistics, but the stats rarely tell the whole story and, in Superglue’s case, that is certainly so. Kenan is a fascinating character, a fact that I have gleaned from the background information that is readily available but more from personal contact with the man as well.
Firstly, and in Kenan’s own reckoning, most importantly, he is a devout Muslim, observing the various feasts and fasts that are part and parcel of his religion. A deeply religious man, he carries his prayer mat with him to the meetings and prays the required number of times each day, facing towards Mecca wherever he happens to be in the world. He makes no big show of this, usually choosing the privacy of the team accommodation at the track to do so. As someone who has more than their fair share of issues with the uglier side of Islam, his quiet and dignified devotion provides at least some semblance of balance.
Kenan is quietly spoken and very modest when it comes to discussions about his success. He gives a great deal of credit to the machinery that he rides and the crew around him who do their best to keep him and the bike at the pointy end. He is the subject of some gentle ribbing in the media for his squeaky voice, but he lets his actions do the talking.
On the track he is known as the hard man of the class. In a class that is filled with riders who know just how much you have to give in this fiercely contested category, nearly all acknowledge (some grudgingly) that nobody is harder to beat than Kenan. You can’t give more than 100% (despite what the average football coach says) but, if you could, the highest percentage given would belong to the Turk.
And he has needed to be tough. I don’t know of any current rider who has had to endure more tragedy in his personal life than Kenan has. He is the youngest of three sons, and has had to attend the funerals of both of his elder brothers, both of whom have died in tragic circumstances; one in a road accident and one in a racing accident. Then, in May this year, his newborn son collapsed and had to be put on life support, and it was touch and go if he would live. Kenan was set to give the race meeting that weekend a miss so that he could be with his wife and little boy, but, when the baby began to show signs of recovery, he took that as a sign that he, too, should embrace life, and he raced on.
There are those who say that Kenan is a “win it or bin it” rider. Certainly the piece of battered Kawasaki fairing in my garage would indicate that this is so. But the fact is that, champion riders balance as close to the edge as it is possible to get; to win you must do so. And, sometimes they step over that edge but that is the price you pay for seeing how much faster you CAN go; how much further you CAN trust the tyres; how much earlier you CAN pick up the throttle; how much you CAN intimidate your opponent into an error.
It has been my privilege to interview Kenan three times as part of my media duties for MotoPod. I’m not talking about 30 second sound bites here, either. I’m talking about 30-40 minutes of in-depth picking of the brain. The last time I interviewed him at Phillip Island, he paid me the ultimate compliment. He said that he had banned all interviews from Turkish media that year because they don’t do their research properly and they ask him silly questions! However, he said, he loved being interviewed by me because I loved the sport, I asked him intelligent questions and I give him plenty of time to answer. In fact, he said, I was his favourite interviewer! High praise indeed from a man at the top of his game.
In closing, I have to say that I am torn a little this year. Much as I love Superglue and would love to see him raise the bar even higher in WSS, I also have a big soft spot for the upstart Frenchman who is presently nipping at his heels. I guess I should console myself that, in any event, two of my favourite riders are probably going to finish 1-2 in the title and that can’t be a bad quinella, can it?
So, Superglue from a slightly different angle. There certainly hasn’t been anybody quite like him and probably won’t be again. And that’s not a bad way to be remembered.
jeffb says
A fine article ,Phil and big credit to you for ‘Super’s’ comments about you as an interviewer. I wonder whether observance of Ramadan played any part in his off last race? It would be hard to manage his energy/food/fluid intake on race weekends. Guess he’s done plenty of those weekends over the years so probably no big deal.
Phil Hall says
A really fascinating character. Very privileged to have been “on the inside” so to speak. Thanks.