So with Chris' RV in the bag (see "I'm back!' Part 4), all that remained was for WorldSBK Round 6 to roll around. Knockhill BSB was 16-18th June (when Chris made his offer) and Donington WorldSBK was 1st and 2nd July. So 'only' two weeks - but believe me, given how excited I was, that 14 days felt more like two months!
However, just as it seemed that everything had finally fallen into place, fate dropped a massive, steaming turd right in my path...
At this juncture I feel like a backstory is needed to fully contextualise the dilemma I found myself in, so please forgive the lengthy digression...
Rewind back to 2022, to when I first started 'The Fast Turks' - I established contact with WorldSBK's PR department which is part of Dorna (who own and run both MotoGP and WorldSBK). They liked what I was doing and that I was approaching things from the Turkish angle (bear in mind Toprak was going into the '22 season as reigning WorldSBK champion) and in turn they very kindly offered me 'Media Accreditation' to attend the UK round at Donington Park to help kickstart my new venture.
I hadn't actually contacted them for that reason so naturally I bit their hand off and also got Kağan in on the action as photographer.
That was the weekend we befriended the TR54 Fan Club - namely Varol abi, Ferit abi, Ramazan 'Rambo' abi and Ahmet (who came all the way over from Australia!). They had a small motorhome in the paddock, so you can imagine how star-struck Kağan and I were when Toprak, Can and Bahattin showed up on Thursday evening to chill with us - well, technically they came to see the TR54 Fan Club guys but you get the point :)
It was so surreal to be sat there socialising with these guys who I'd watched for so many years on the TV!
And the surreality didn't end there, because come Saturday I would go on to join the TR54 guys on-track to celebrate the first of Toprak's clean sweep of victories over the weekend (his first official hat-trick of race wins in the class). I couldn't believe how elaborate and organised the whole affair was - I'd always assumed that some random fans just jumped over the fencing to hand over the Turkish flag whenever Kenan Sofuoğlu and Toprak won races.
But I found out first-hand that the Turkish fans have a contact at Dorna, who before or during the race will advise the TR54 Fan Club which corner to wait at, in preparation of a Turkish triumph.
When Race 1 started, we were situated on the infield section of Craner Curves (because in the past that's where the TR54 Fan Club had been advised to hand over the flag) but by the halfway point, Varol abi received a text message advising him to re-locate the troops to the Foggy Esses.
It's a fair old distance between those two locations, so we couldn't stand on ceremony and duly got our proverbial skates on! That weekend was one of those rare, blazing hot weekends that the UK serves up every once in a while, so by the time we arrived at Foggy Esses we were sweating like Michael Barrymore at a pool party...
The juice was worth the squeeze though: we made it with a few laps to spare and anxiously stationed ourselves at the marshal's post, and soon heard the circuit announcer declare over the tannoy that Toprak had indeed won (as if it was ever in doubt!).
With the race over, we were like dogs straining at the leash but the marshall gestured for us to wait. A minute or two later, he got the go-ahead from his superior over the walkie-talkie to allow us onto the track...
Holy shit, I was on the hallowed Donington tarmac during a live, albeit just completed race! Suddenly I felt like all eyes were on us. And to paraphrase that old Maccy D's advert: I was loving it!
From our vantage point, we could only see as far as the entry into the Foggy Esses, and it was obvious that Toprak was soaking in the atmosphere and revelling in his victory, as we still had to wait a minute or so for him to reach us.
Finally, he came into view - he saw Ahmet waving the Turkish flag and rather than bank right to exit Foggys he continued left towards where we were waiting.
I had my phone in hand to capture the momentous occasion and as the No.1 Yamaha approached us, he pulled his customary stoppie and playfully butted heads with Ferit abi as he came to a complete stop.
It was a truly special moment, one that I felt so unbelievably honoured and privileged to be a part of! Unfortunately, in the excitement of the ensuing celebratory hugs, a flailing arm/elbow knocked the phone out of my hand so my footage was cut short somewhat. No matter, what I did manage to record prior to that was epic (see video below).
Celebrating Toprak's Race 1 victory at Donington Park with the TR54 Fan Club, Donington 2022
A selection of shots from Donington WorldSBK 2022. Last two photos of Toprak with the Turkish flag are copyright of Robert Batey
Now, I had been warned prior to the weekend that any video footage shared on social media was strictly prohibited by Dorna. They owned the copyright, and even with media accreditation you needed to be a big hitter to avail of special permission to share video content.
And I was definitely not a big hitter.
I'm usually a level-headed person who plays it safe. I certainly don't consider myself a risk-taker - far from it - and I don't like confrontations with authority figures. I agonised for a few seconds, but then in a rare moment of care-free rebellion, I just said to myself: "Fuck it, you only live once!"
How many people get to say that they've celebrated their favourite rider's victory with them, and on-track no less? Notwithstanding that said rider is a legit superstar and universally loved in the sport?
I figured that worse case scenario if I was going to have my media accreditation revoked at the first time of asking, then celebrating my countryman's victory at my "home" track was a pretty epic way of going about it! What was it Bon Jovi once famously sang about "going down in a blaze of glory"?
So the deed was done, and I shared my 10 seconds of glory with the rest of the world. I only had about 50-60 followers on Instagram at that point, but a few hours later suddenly my phone began to blow up - Toprak had only gone and shared my video of his rolling stoppie on his Insta Stories!
Shortly after, and not unsurprisingly, I received a text from my contact at Dorna - let's call him 'Bob' going forward, to say that Dorna's Media Department had seen the video and weren't best pleased about it. However, they liked the video in itself and in principle were happy to use it for their own means (which they duly did in the coming weeks, twice in fact!). All that remained was for me to attend Bob's office the next day for a 'quick chat'.
I felt like a sodding school kid being summoned to the Headmaster's office to be reprimanded! At my age, I resented being made to feel that way in truth (hated school!), although I totally understood that my action's were bound to have repercussions, and ultimately I had to accept whatever fate awaited me...
I met Bob the next day and to be fair to him, he handled the situation in a laid back and diplomatic manner - basically I got away with a semi-friendly slap on the wrist.
When I relayed what happened to the TR54 guys, they got a bit nervous and advised that in the event "El Turco" won Race 2 (he did), that I should hang back a bit from the main group when they were celebrating with Toprak and handing over the flag; they didn't want my video indiscretion compromising the relationship that they'd built up with WorldSBK over many years. Totally fair, although I still gave Toprak a pat on the shoulder as he took off with the flag - just couldn't help myself!
So to sum up, I had the weekend of my life! I had been exposed to a whole new world, and I didn't want it to be a one-off. So I travelled to Most, Czech Republic for the next WorldSBK round, and once again, managed to get on track with the TR54 Fan Club. After that, I also attended Catalunya and Portimão. To confirm, I'd attend all those races by obtaining Media passes through Bob.
During this period, I took my foot off the gas regarding keeping the TFT website updated, and instead focussed my attention on trying to regularly post on my social media channels.
Which brings me back to the figurative steaming turd mentioned at the beginning of this blog.
Despite attending the Misano round of the WorldSBK Championship in June 2023, when I informed Bob that I required a Media Pass for Donny in July, he advised me that I no longer qualified for one and that he wouldn't be able to fulfil my request.
I was flabbergasted! Talk about having the rug pulled out from beneath you!
Bob called me a few days later and went on to explain that Dorna were aware that certain people were 'abusing' their "Media Pass" privileges, and that WorldSBK were now adopting a 'no nonsense' attitude and cracking down on such offenders. He never explicitly said that I fell into that category, but that he had expected me to maintain my website, which I hadn't been doing and as such, this was the main contributing factor behind his decision to revoke my pass.
I explained that I now worked for CDH Racing (which he already knew) and that they were now my priority, and that I was still regularly posting on TFT's social media channels. Not to mention I still worked a full-time job and had a family to support! I felt obliged to remind Bob that I wasn't earning any money from either TFT or CDH Racing.
There was a lengthy back and forth between us, with me imploring him to at least grant me a media pass for Donny as a goodwill gesture before pulling the plug, especially in light of the fact that it was through my relationship with Chris that we had secured an RV for the TR54 Fan Club to use as a base in the paddock.
And even if I managed to obtain a weekend pass through the TR54 Fan Club, this still wouldn't allow me access to the track on the Thursday - the day that WorldSBK allows motorhomes etc into the paddock and organises where they will park once inside the complex.
What should I do? I pretty much begged Bob to reverse his decision. But he wouldn't budge. He appreciated the bind he'd now put me in but ultimately I was on my own from this point onwards and he wasn't able to help in any way shape or form. He just said that I would need to lean on my friends at TR54 to help me gain access to the track, and wasn't particularly interested in how we went about it.
I was absolutely fucking livid because having attended a number of WorldSBK races in different countries over the last year, I'd noticed that there was always one or two track staff who took their jobs way too seriously. You know the type; insufferable imbeciles who are just looking for an opportunity to throw their weight around in a self-righteous display of clipboard Nazism.
And I REALLY didn't need that kind of stress or hassle.
My sense of burning injustice was born out of the fact that not once did Bob, or indeed any Dorna/WorldSBK representative - at any point in time - discuss verbally, or forward any literature, explicitly detailing and outlining what was expected of me in regard to tangible output in order to qualify for media accreditation, if and when I required it.
I just couldn't fathom how I'd been granted a media pass for Misano just a month earlier, and yet now I was being told I no longer met some abruptly implemented, arbitrary and extremely ill-timed criteria. Bob actually admitted during our conversation that he had considered refusing my request for media accreditation when I requested one for Misano, but for whatever reason he didn't go through with it.
Thankfully, the TR54 Fan Club came through and they sorted my weekend pass. I won't go into detail as to how I circumnavigated the hurdle of Thursday track access - suffice it to say, Bob never explicitly said I couldn't attend on Thursday, and that's all I'm prepared to say on the matter...
Unfortunately for us, and despite Toprak's impressive win record down the years at the Derbyshire track, he could only manage a Superpole Race victory - Alvaro Bautista and his rocket-ship Ducati V4 swept to two feature-length races.
But I felt mega-proud that as a direct result of my endeavours with CDH Racing and my friendship with Chris, that the TR54 Fan Club had a paddock presence and that our Turkish riders were able to spend time with us as a result.
Taking the PR game up a few notches...
Oh, and I even ran into Bob in the paddock after Race 2. I once again re-iterated my disappointment and annoyance at being placed in such a compromising position, and much to my pleasant surprise he finally admitted that: "We could have handled the situation better."
While he never actually apologised, his conciliatory tone was enough of a tacit admission of guilt - and that was all the vindication I needed.
Final blog in the series to come...
A selection of photos from Donington WorldSBK, 2023