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Castrol Ford Team Türkiye driver Ali Turkkan and co-driver Oytun Albayrak returned to Türkiye after winning the Junior WRC category at Rally Portugal, securing their second straight victory of the season and strengthening their push for a first world title in rallying for Türkiye.
The Turkish duo was welcomed at Istanbul Airport after carrying the Turkish flag to the top of the podium in Portugal, where they built on their earlier win in Croatia and kept their championship hopes firmly alive.
Junior WRC, the youth category of the World Rally Championship, brings together emerging rally drivers on some of the sport’s most demanding routes. In Portugal, Turkkan and Albayrak raced across stages in the Porto, Lousa and Arganil regions, where changing weather conditions added to the challenge.
Although the team faced technical problems during the rally and briefly lost the lead, Turkkan and Albayrak pushed through the final day with a renewed strategy and managed to finish first in the Junior WRC class.
The result marked the pair’s third career victory in the World Junior Rally Championship and their second win in a row this season. With the championship set to end in Chile in September, Castrol Ford Team Türkiye is aiming to bring Türkiye its first world championship title in rallying.
Speaking at the welcoming ceremony, Ali Turkkan said Rally Portugal was one of the most difficult events on the calendar, but added that the team had been ready for the challenge.
He said rallying was a long and demanding sport, and explained that although they had lost the lead at one stage, they found their pace again on Sunday with a new strategy.
“Our biggest pride is to have our national anthem played there as a Turkish team and to show that Turks also exist in this sport,” Turkkan said.
He added that the success made a serious contribution to Türkiye’s brand value in sports.
Co-driver Oytun Albayrak said the team had gone into this year’s Rally Portugal with strong motivation after difficult memories from the previous season.
He said they had wanted to put those setbacks behind them with strong preparation, and that the result showed they had managed to do so.
“We left behind a race where the excitement never dropped despite technical problems,” Albayrak said, adding that wider media coverage for motorsports would help share this pride more strongly across the country.
Team Director Murat Bostanci said the Portuguese victory came after their success in Croatia, giving the team back-to-back wins.
He noted that Turkkan had cut the gap to the championship leader to just two points, with Finland and the season-ending Chile Rally still ahead. Bostanci said the target was clear: to bring Türkiye its first world championship in rallying.
He added that the team had grown from a project that once seemed like a dream into a fully Turkish operation, including the driver, co-driver and technical crew, capable of dominating its class.
Bostanci also said the team continued to invest in younger athletes, supporting drivers who are several years younger than Turkkan as part of a wider effort to bring new talent into Turkish motorsports.
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