I met Abdo Feghali and Bin Sulayem.. I took my experience from my father
In the Int. Rally of Turkey WRC, i won Turkey’s rally championship the 14 positions and 6 positions in WRC 2..
“I born in 1978, I took my experience from my father from 1981 to 1996 , who had take me when he participated in the rallies with Renault Turkey’s Factory, when i was 10 years old, he said. I started my journey with the motor sport in karting in 1992, then I did 3 years karting and 2 years in circuit race cup where i was a champion in Ford Ka ,and that it was my first real experience, after that, in 1999 Ford gave me a new Ford Maxi with 110 Hp so in this year i came the first between challengers of 13 cars, then i have got a Ford Focus that they gave it to me as a group (N) car so i finished the year 2001 as the group (N) winner..
At 2002 i became F2 champion in Turkey, then i start with 1600 cc it was very popular that years.In 2003,2004,2005 and 2006, in this four years i participated in 3 rallies in Europe, and Cyprus was one of these rallies ,and it was very good experience for me, and up to now i participated in 133 rallies and finished 93% as a total.
In 2004 the Renault Turkey offered to me to use the Factory car Renault Clio 1600 ,after one year i drove a car of Opel Turkey ,after that in 2006-2007, i used (Tofash) Turkish Fiat car 1600 , after that i past to 4 wheel drive ,so Mitsubishi Evo 9, so i became the Turkish group (N) champion in 2008 and 2009, with a special sponsor with was the YURTİÇİ KARGO, after 2010 i past to super 2000 with sponsor Duty free of Turkey ,we did 7 rallies ,but in that time in 2009 i did in Italy Clio trophy 5 rallies AND 1 rally in France(RALLY DU VAR), so it was very good experience for me,it was very competitive TROPHY AND I FİNİSHED in 5th position Renault trophy in Italy 2009 .
In 2010 i worked with BALBOSCA from Italy and I drove Peugeot 207 S2000 and I finish the season in 2nd position after that it is very interesting for me to go with Skoda STORY , so I signed an agreement with RENE GEORGE from Belgium and there was only one month to start the first rally of Turkey Championship, so I rented Skoda Fabia Super 2000 ,after that we negotiated with Skoda Turkey if there is possibility to be a sponsor ,so they agree only for one rally ..
After I win the first rally Skoda ,THEY told me THAT they will sponsored TO me for all the season and that was very good .
In 2011 and 2012 Skoda Turkey was my main sponsor and we did a lot of rallies with THEM. After that in 2013 I did 7 rallies with MİTSUBİSHİ EVO 9 group (N) car, in that time I didn’t have any budget ,even though I became TURKISH group (N) Champion.
In 2014 I rented a Skoda Fabia S2000 for TURKİSH championship, I finished as a turkey champion , in 2015 I decided to make a rally team in Turkey under the name of BC (Burak Çukurova) VİSİON MOTORSPORT ,so in 2016 we started with 5 cars in my team, it was one Peugeot 208 R5 , and 2 group (N) cars and 2 R2 car , so I finished in 2nd POSİTİON TURKİSH championship in 2016, after that, at 2017 we start championship it was a very good year for us and 2017 we become TURKİSH RALLY CHAMPİON,TURKİSH TEAMS CHAMPION , so on the other hand, every year we went to Italy to do some rallies, for example before 2 years we did 4 rallies, last year we did 3 rallies, and this year at the beginning of the season we did for one practice rally.
why Italy ?
because I finished the Italian high school in Istanbul , for this reason I’m very close to the Italian side, so I like too much to do rallies in Italy, because it’s another world of rallies, yearly they do 150 rallies .. and I got a good experience from them, but in Turkey there is only 7 rallies in the all season.
In this year in Turkey we did 5 local rallies and the last one was the WRC world championship, that rally is very important for Turkey, and Turkish Federation in my opinion DİD very good organization but the rally was very rough,
and there was a very high competition, and from Turkish teams, 3 cars only finished the rally, and we finish in first position of them, so it was a very big success for us that we finished at 14th position in overall and in 6th position in WRC2 category and although we had 3 times puncture in the rally but we didn’t have any mechanical problems..
Next month we will have a local rally as the 6th round of championship. Now I become 40 years old, not a young but I still want to do more rallies in European side and it could be in Germany or Italy or Spain, I like this sport and this sport meaning to me as my life, I started 27 years ago so I love too much this sport.
What do you have plans for this year?
This year we plan to go to rally Catalonia, waiting for the budget ,we will see, but next year we have 2 or 3 rallies for WRC 2 category ,one in Italy, one in Germany and the 3rd one will be in Spain.
Did you enter in any middle east rallies?
In the middle east the rallies always are nice because of the famous like Mohammad Bin Sulayem ,he was a big pilot for middle east, 25 years ago he win a lot of rallies in Turkey, 14th time as a middle east champion, and Nasser Al Attiya he is a very fast and good driver, and I know that the rallies in the middle east are interesting and if I find sponsor I will enter some rallies in the world because the rally for me is the best thing in my life..
How many local rallies in Turkey?
There are 7 rallies.
How many Championship you win in Turkey?
I won 6 championship. I win the group (N) champion on 2001 and 2013 , I became F2 champion in 2002 with Ford Focus maxi,I become a group A champion at 2000.I became 2017 Turkish rally Champion.So i can say that I did 133 rallies and this is the maximum number of rallies in Turkey, and I participated in a lot of Rallies in my life and I wish to continue with this sport and i don’t know at which age I will stop participating in rallies.
How many rallies still in Turkey Championship?
There is 2 rallies, one in Istanbul after one month and the other one is closed to Istanbul in Kocaeli after 2 month, so if i win the next rally i will be the Turkish Championship for 2018.
Ogier
Abdo Feghali
Loeb
Bin sulayem
Did you met any champion from the Middle east?
Yes i know Bin sulayem from my father’s time in 1990’s ,he is a very fast driver.
Also i met Abdo Feghali in Azarbejian at Race of Champion (V1 challenge)before three years there was a race of champion challenge for 16 pilots.. I challenge him but he bit me ,he past me..
I know Abdo Feghali he is a very professional driver in drifting ..he and Nasser Al Attiyah have a passion in motorsport and when any person has a passion ,he can do everything not only in motorsport .
Who’s the main sponsor for you
The main sponsor for me is Skoda Turkey and there is some others as a co-sponsors ( PUNTO restaurant,intercity İstanbul park,ibis Hotels,otostil and fener nakliyat).
Turkey federation are they support drivers?
In rallies no but in circuit race they support only 2 drivers.
The president of Turkey federation is old rally driver and he has a good vision but he has to get a budget from Turkey Government to support the rallies, if he can get it then he can support us in rallies, because the cost for one year is 150.000 Euro .
For you who’s the best rally driver?
Sebastian Loeb is the best , he is 9 time world rally champion, then Sebastian Ogier ..and from the old pilot
Sainz and Makinen are very special drivers..
At the end of this interesting interview, i wish to Burak a good luck in his rallies and his life,i appreciate his motorsport passion and at the same time i wish to all the drivers rally same passion as Burak has it ..