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Atlas Pars Pehlivan, a seven-year-old rider in Izmir, Türkiye, has turned improvised training sessions in empty parking lots into a national championship result after winning key rounds of the Turkish Supermoto Championship in the 50cc Mini category and finishing top overall in the same class last year.
Atlas Pars Pehlivan trains under the guidance of his father, Batu Pehlivan, a Turkish national motorcyclist who runs a motorcycle service business.
Batu Pehlivan said he first taught his son to ride when the child was 2.5 years old, and that their routine changed sharply after the city’s racing track was shut down.
To keep up high-speed practice, the father and son began traveling to the Usak Municipality Race Track, loading the motorcycles and required gear into a caravan, and training there twice a week for a period. When regular trips became difficult, they switched to large open parking areas in Izmir, choosing times when no cars were present.
Their parking-lot sessions follow a set routine: they arrive with the caravan, put on protective equipment, ready the motorcycles, and then place a cone set to map out a course.
Batu Pehlivan described how they try to recreate demanding conditions in these makeshift spaces, even as the child has had a few crashes during the process.
He said the effort behind the title was significant, framing their story as a journey “from parking lots to a Turkish championship,” and stressed that they trained in all conditions without having a dedicated facility for the sport. “We were able to win the Turkish championship with very limited means,” he said.
Atlas Pars won first place in the 50cc Mini categories at the 3rd and 5th rounds of the Turkish Supermoto Championship last year, and he also became the Turkish champion in the overall standings of that same category.
Atlas Pars said his first championship made him happy while also describing how nervous he felt around race time.
Ahead of the fifth round, he said he could not sleep the night before and told his father he was very excited, while his father reassured him that he did not need to worry because it was what they do.
He also described competing in heavy rain across three days and said he arrived on the second lap in a race that ended with him securing the national title. He recalled a brief exchange with his father afterward: “My dad said, ‘I am very proud of you.’ I told my dad, ‘I am proud of you too.’”
Batu Pehlivan said their next chapter is to be seen in European and world championships, while noting that entry typically starts at age 10, with the possibility of moving that threshold back by one year through a special permission process.
He added that there is a training camp in Europe that they plan to attend to assess where they stand and receive instruction, to represent Türkiye and make Atlas Pars’ name known.
Atlas Pars said he looks up to Turkish rider Toprak Razgatlioglu and wants to become a world champion like him.
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