Bahattin Sofuoğlu

Birth Place:

Adapazarı, Turkey

Date of Birth:

9 August 2003 (Age 20)

Career Highlights:

* Won World Supersport Challenge Cup 2022

* Placed 3rd in World Supersport 300 Championship 2020

Current Race Number:

Social Media:

Introduction

Bahattin Sofuoğlu is the cousin of Kenan Sofuoğlu and was named after Kenan’s brother Bahattin who tragically lost his life in a road traffic accident in 2002, when he was struck by a car when crossing the road. He is the latest of the Sofuoğlu racing dynasty to fly the flag for Turkey, having competed in the Asia Talent Cup in 2016 as a 13-year old alongside his fellow compatriots Can and Deniz Oncü. After a lowly 16th place finish he returned to Turkey for 2017 and won both the Turkish Supersport and Supermoto championships.

The Sofuoğlu legacy continues

His debut in full international competition was as a wildcard entry in the World Supersport 300 category in 2018 at Estoril where he came a respectable 17th out of a field of 40 riders. In 2019 he competed in a further 9 races (not a full race season). Come 2020 and Bahattin was finally offered a full-time position riding as a Yamaha bLU cRU rider, joining the Biblion Motoxracing Yamaha WSSP300 squad and taking two victoires at Jerez and Aragon. He achieved an impressive third in the final standings as the top Yamaha rider.

An up and down year followed in 2021, with six retirements from a 16-race calender. High points came later in the season with wins in the second races of the Catalan and Jerez rounds, with both visits to the top of the rostrum being notable for their winning margins – his Catalan victory was taken by the narrowest margin in the history of the class at that tiime (0.003 seconds - this has since been dropped to 0.002!) whereas in Jerez he stormed away from the chasing pack to triumph by a gargantuan (by World SSP300 standards) 3.5 seconds!

As part of Yamaha's bLU cRU program he was one of a select group of five riders to be invited to Valentino Rossi's 'Master Camp' in Tavullia, Italy to receive training on a variety of different motorbikes and track surfaces.

A new chapter

Despite only finishing sixth in the 2021 WSS300 standings, MV Agusta Reparto Corse saw enough potential in Bahattin to offer him a ride on their World Supersport bike for the 2022 season (he competed in only the European rounds). The factory MV outfit has been competing in the World Supersport class in one guise or another since 2013, and despite coming close on numerous occasions as yet that first world title has remained elusive.

With new rules in place for 2022 in an attempt to even out the playing field and break Yamaha's stranglehold on the series with their YZF-R6 model, MV's bike benefitted from an increase in engine capacity from 675cc to 800cc. As a rookie competing on what was essentially a new bike, Bahattin was a slow-burner in his rookie season; despite a promising start in Round 1 at Motorland Aragon, when he placed 12th and 14th overall, his form was inconsistent in the first half of the season.

The turning point came at the sixth round of the championship in the Czech Republic, when the youngster sealed two impressive Top 10 finishes (seventh and fifth). This was a stepping stone for an impressive upturn in form which saw him ultimately go on to seal the World Supersport Challenge Cup; a mini-championship exclusively for those riders who participated only in the European races of the series.

Bahattin Sofuoglu MV Agusta F3 800 RR.jpg

Stepping up!

For the 2023 season, Bahattin competed in the World Supersport category as a fully-fledged championsip entrant for the MV Agusta Reparto Corse team. Which is to say, he raced the full calendar season, not just the European rounds.

After a slow start to the year, he needed to prove he was up to muster and that he was capable of rubbing shoulders with the established front-runners in the class. And sure enough, having secured a hard-fought podium, crossing the line third in Race 1 of the Catalan round of the championship (edging out an overly aggressive Stefano Manzi no less), he really proved his mettle in Race 2 as once again he resisted the advances of Manzi to take a memorable first win!

It was a truly superlative display of riding under pressure, beating a much more experienced rider: it's always harder to lead than it is to follow. For the first time since 2018 - the last time Bahattin's Kenan 'abi' won a World Supersport race - the legendary Sofuoğlu name was back at the top of the standings!

That would prove to be the high-point of a season that would probably best be categorısed as something of a mixed bag. A freak, mid-season training injury while battling KNN54 stablemate Toprak Razgatlıoğlu at Kenan Sofuoğlu's private circuit meant Bahattin nursed a sore wrist for a few weeks, in turn causing him discomfort on the bike.

But more significantly, Dorna decided to penalise the MV Agusta Reparto Corse team by reducing the maximum number of engine revs of the F3 800 RR on the eve of the French round at Magny Cours. A dubious decision (we'll get to that in a bit...) and one seemingly enforced to simply placate Ten Kate Yamaha rider Manzi, who for some time had vocally bemoaned the straight-line speed advantage enjoyed by the likes of MV's 800cc triple and Ducati's 1,000c V-twin, compared to his Yamaha's 600cc, inline four-cylinder.

What made the decision odd however was that it was exclusively applied to MV Agusta, not the class-leading Ducati V2 Panegale - despite the latter being every bit as fast, if not faster, than the MV down the straights.

The No.54 struggled more than his experienced team-mate, Marcel Shrotter, to adapt to the new engine characteristics, and eventually finished a distant sixth in the standings.

Heading into the 2024 campaign, the 20-year old will want to continue his upward trajectory with more regular visits to the podium and establishing himself as a consistent front-runner.

Dedicated to Turkish motorcycle racers competing on the world stage and more!

Bahattin Sofuoğlu

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