Kenan Sofuoğlu

Kenan Sofuoğlu
Sofuoğlu in 2007.
Nationality	Turkish
Born	August 25, 1984 Kuzuluk, Akyazı, Sakarya Province, Turkey
Current team	Kawasaki Puccetti Racing
Bike number	1
Motorcycle racing career statistics Moto2 World Championship Active years 2010–2011 Manufacturers Suter-Honda Championships 0 2011 championship position 17th (59 pts) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 16 0 1 0 0 70 Superbike World Championship Active years 2008 Manufacturers Honda Championships 0 2008 championship position 18th (54 pts) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 23 0 0 0 0 54 Supersport World Championship Active years 2003, 2006–2010, 2012– Manufacturers Yamaha, Honda, Kawasaki Championships 4 (2007, 2010, 2012, 2015) 2015 championship position 1st (233 pts) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 108 33 72 25 27 1,717

Kenan Sofuoğlu (born August 25, 1984 in Kuzuluk, Akyazı) is a Turkish professional motorcycle racer, who has won the highest number of Supersport World Championship titles: four, in 2007, 2010, 2012 and 2015.

Sofuoğlu also competed in Moto2 for the Technomag-CIP team, having made his debut at the end of 2010 and remained with the team for the 2011 season.^[1] He previously won the Supersport World Championship for the Ten Kate Honda in 2007 and 2010, and he is the championship's all-time leading race winner, having won 17 races. He raced in the World Superbike Championship for Ten Kate in 2008, but with limited success.

Racing for Kawasaki in 2012, Sofuoğlu claimed his third Supersport World Championship at the Portuguese Grand Prix, in the penultimate race.^[2]

Sofuoglu is currently the most successful rider to have ever competed in the Supersport World Championship. Now a four-time champion, he was previously the only rider to have won three times, and he holds most of the career and track records in the class. ^[3]

Career

Supersport and Superbikes

After winning Class B of the Turkish Supersport Championship in 2000 and the German Yamaha R6 Cup in 2002, Sofuoğlu moved into the European Superstock Championship, finishing second and third in two seasons. Subsequently, Sofuoğlu entered the Supersport World Championship full-time in 2006 after three races in 2003. Sofuoğlu dominated the 2007 season, winning five of the first eight races, and broke the record for the most wins in one season. These included a two-lap charge from sixth to first at Monza, and a win on his first ever visit to Donington Park, in the wet. He also won at Losail, Spain and Assen, Netherlands. He clinched the championship with three races to go, by finishing second at Brands Hatch, becoming Turkey's first major motorsport world champion.^[4]

Sofuoğlu then signed with Ten Kate Honda for three more years. For 2008 he rode a 3rd Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR in World Superbikes, as part of a junior team. He was not successful, and returned to Supersport with the team for 2009. This time the team struggled to match Cal Crutchlow's Yamaha and the Parkalgar Honda of Eugene Laverty, leaving Sofuoğlu to fight for third in the standings. He opened 2010 with a succession of podium finishes, leaving him in a 3-way championship battle with Laverty and Motocard Kawasaki's Joan Lascorz. He eventually claimed the title, finishing on the podium in every race.

For 2013, as the world champion, Sofuoğlu had the option of riding for the Italian Pedercini Team but he opted to join the Indian Mahi Team owned by Mahendra Singh Dhoni.^[5]

Moto2

Towards the end of the 2010 season Sofuoğlu appeared in Moto2 at the Portuguese Grand Prix, with the Technomag-CIP team, replacing Shoya Tomizawa, who had died in an incident at Misano. Sofuoğlu was fourth fastest in practice, which put him on the front row after qualifying was rained out. The race marked his first ever dry laps on the bike, but he led for the majority of the race before finishing the race in fifth despite having to try to adjust the handlebars of the bike while racing.^[6] Sofuoğlu remained with the team in 2011, riding one of the team's Suters.^[1]

Career statistics

Supersport World Championship

Races by year

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Bike	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	Pos.	Pts
2003	Yamaha	SPA 16	AUS	JPN	ITA	GER Ret	GBR	SMR	GBR	NED	ITA	FRA Ret				NC	0
2006	Honda	QAT 3	AUS Ret	SPA Ret	ITA 5	EUR 20	SMR 8	CZE 3	GBR 3	NED 1	GER 1	ITA 2	FRA 2			3rd	157
2007	Honda	QAT 1	AUS 2	EUR 1	SPA 1	NED 1	ITA 1	GBR Ret	SMR 3	CZE 1	GBR 2	GER 2	ITA 1	FRA 1		1st	276
2008	Honda	QAT	AUS	SPA	NED	ITA	GER	SMR	CZE	GBR	EUR	ITA	FRA	POR 1		19th	25
2009	Honda	AUS 1	QAT 4	SPA 3	NED 5	ITA 9	RSA 5	USA 1	SMR Ret	GBR 4	CZE 9	GER Ret	ITA 1	FRA 3	POR 2	3rd	189
2010	Honda	AUS 3	POR 1	SPA 2	NED 3	ITA 2	RSA 2	USA 1	SMR 3	CZE 1	GBR 2	GER 2	ITA 2	FRA 2		1st	263
2012	Kawasaki	AUS 1	ITA DSQ	NED 2	ITA 3	EUR 2	SMR 1	SPA 5	CZE 2	GBR 5	RUS 1	GER 1	POR 2	FRA 4		1st	218
2013	Kawasaki	AUS 1	SPA Ret	NED 2	ITA Ret	GBR 2	POR 3	ITA 1	RUS C	GBR 1	GER Ret	TUR 1	FRA 1	SPA 2		2nd	201
2014	Kawasaki	AUS Ret	SPA 1	NED Ret	ITA Ret	GBR 4	MAL 3	SMR 4	POR 3	SPA 13	FRA Ret	QAT 8				8th	94
2015	Kawasaki	AUS 6	THA 2	SPA 1	NED 1	ITA 1	GBR 1	POR 2	SMR 11	MAL 4	SPA 1	FRA 2	QAT 2			1st	233
2016	Kawasaki	AUS Ret	THA 2	SPA 1	NED 3	ITA 1	MAL	GBR	ITA	ITA	GER	FRA	SPA	QAT		1st*	86*

* Season still in progress.

Superbike World Championship

By season

Season	Moto	Team	Race	Win	Pod	Pole	FLap	Pts	Plcd	WCh
2008	Honda CBR1000RR	Ten Kate Racing	23	0	0	0	0	54	18th
Total			23	0	0	0	0	54		0

Races by year

(key)

Year	Make	1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		11		12		13		14		Pos.	Pts
		R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2
2008	Honda	QAT 12	QAT 10	AUS 14	AUS 11	ESP 12	ESP 15	NED 12	NED 19	ITA	ITA	USA 12	USA 14	GER Ret	GER 21	SMR 18	SMR Ret	CZE 10	CZE 10	GBR 13	GBR 17	EUR Ret	EUR DNS	ITA Ret	ITA Ret	FRA 9	FRA 19	POR	POR	18th	54

Grand Prix motorcycle racing

By Seasons

Season	Class	Motorcycle	Type	Races	Win	Podiums	Pole	Pts	Position
2010	Moto2	Suter	Suter MMX	2	0	0	0	11	29th
2011	Moto2	Suter	Suter MMXI	14	0	1	0	59	17th
Total				16	0	1	0	70

By class

Class	Seas	1st GP	1st Pod	1st Win	Race	Win	Podiums	Pole	FLap	Pts	WChmp
Moto2	2010–	2010 Portugal	2011 Netherlands		16	0	1	0	0	70	0
Total	2010–				16	0	1	0	0	70	0

Races by year

(key)

Year	Class	Bike	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	Pos.	Pts
2010	Moto2	Suter	QAT	SPA	FRA	ITA	GBR	NED	CAT	GER	CZE	IND	RSM	ARA	JPN	MAL	AUS	POR 5	VAL Ret	29th	11
2011	Moto2	Suter	QAT 18	SPA 16	POR Ret	FRA 26	CAT Ret	GBR 8	NED 2	ITA 10	GER 11	CZE 10	IND DNS	RSM	ARA	JPN 19	AUS 6	MAL 12	VAL 20	17th	59

Personal life

Sofuoğlu is the third child of İrfan Basri Sofuoğlu and his wife Nurhayat.^[7] He has one sister and two brothers. His father is a motorcycle repairman with his own garage. Two of Sofuoğlu's brothers, who were also local motorcycle racers, have died in accidents. Sofuoğlu's eldest brother Bahattin, himself a domestic Turkish motorcycling champion, died in a traffic accident in 2002. His next eldest brother Sinan died during a race training incident at the İzmit Körfez Circuit in May 2008.^[8]

Sofuoğlu speaks German, French and English in addition to Turkish.^[9] Sofuoğlu is a practising Muslim, who observes the daytime fasting of Ramadan. His bike number 54 stems from his home town's (Sakarya Province in Turkey) license plate number. He has noted that his riding style uses too much upper-body effort, causing him to tire on the bike.

On September 3, 2014, he married Julia Looman, after a two year engagement. After the wedding ceremony in his hometown Sakarya, the couple flew to Barcelona, Spain.^[10]

On March 14, 2015, Kenan Sofuoğlu became father of a son named Hamza, who was born in the Netherlands. On May 2, 2015 the infant suffered a brain bleed during a family holiday in Alanya. He was transferred to Istanbul, and underwent surgery.^[11] Hamza died on July 25, 2015, aged four months, and was buried in the family grave at Akyazı, Sakarya..^[12]

See also

• Sofuoğlu family

References

1. "Kenan Sofuoglu chooses Technomag for 2011". crash.net (Crash Media Group). 6 November 2010. Retrieved 6 November 2010.
2. "Turkish rider Sofuoğlu crowned 2012 champ". Sundaays Zaman. Retrieved 2012-09-23.
3. Template:PaddockTalk Perspective
4. "Turkish Press Review". World Bulletin (CM Bilişim & Capitol Medya). 6 August 2007. Retrieved 6 November 2010.
5. "Dhoni's humility touching: Sofuoglu". The times of India. 30 March 2013.
6. Beer, Matt (31 October 2010). "Bradl wins, Sofuoglu stars in Moto2". autosport.com (Haymarket Publications). Retrieved 6 November 2010.
7. Zabcı, Faruk (2010-10-04). "Kenan'dan büyük başarı". Hürriyet (in Turkish). Retrieved 2010-10-07.
8. Ntvmsnbc.com related news(Turkish)
9. KENAN SOFUOGLU
10. "Kenan Sofuoğlu ve Julia Looman evlendi (3 Eylül 2014)". Hürriyet (in Turkish). 2014-09-04. Retrieved 2014-09-04.
11. "Kenan Sofuoğlu evlat üzüntüsüyle İtalya'ya gitti". Hürriyet (in Turkish). 2015-05-08. Retrieved 2015-07-30.
12. "Kenan Sofuoğlu'nun oğlu Hamza toprağa verildi". NTV Turkey (in Turkish). 2015-07-26. Retrieved 2015-07-30.