Four-time Supersport World Champion Kenan Sofuoglu and the 2015 European Superstock 600 Champion Toprak Razgatlioglu were the stars of the press conference that took place yesterday in Istanbul, held by TMF-Turkish Motorcycle Federation and Red Bull Turkey.

The President of the TMF Bekir Yunus Uçar said, “Kenan Sofuoglu and Toprak Razgatlioglu are the athletes who have proved to be worthy candidates to become national heroes.”

Sofuoglu explained how tough 2015 was for him, with the difficult family situation he had to endure: “Before heading to Malaysia we lost our son Hamza, but we never gave up fighting. I did not live like any other athlete; I had no opportunity to practice and so I was never fully prepared for the race.“

After the tragic loss, Kenan started to train non-stop and his team further increased their work on the engine of the ZX-6R. “We did everything we had to as a team to be champions and in the end we did it. I want to write Hamza Sofuoglu on this trophy. If we have children in the future, I will say 'I got it thanks to your brother.' Every night I had two dreams. One of Hamza's recovery, and the other was to be champion. I lost Hamza, but the second was not a dream. This is Hamza’s championship,” he added.

Sofuoglu, not only the mentor but now also the manager of Razgatlioglu, claimed that he was also very excited for him to be racing in the European Superstock 600 class: “I had the support I needed and gave all my support to Toprak. He took this opportunity very well and achieved his and our dream."

Quite excited about the upcoming season and this year’s successful campaign, the 2015 European Superstock 600 champion commented: "I hope to do even better things in the future. I started to the season so excited. Of course this is only thanks to Kenan that I was able to race in STK600. He told me ´The race is yours, be calm’. But of course I was always so excited that I was never being able to have breakfast. Hopefully in the future I will get used to it. I was excited in the championship race because I was being a champion, I could win it but Kenan told me not to push and be third. I want to thank to Kenan, who is always fully behind me. I would love to do more good things in my racing career."