After her first ever test in a rally car in Lebanon Biser3a.com was the first to interview Turkish Red Bull Athlete Burcu Cetinkaya and had this thrilling conversation. Burcu did three runs today with TGRS and left Falougha satisfied with the course of the day. Burcu will be driving a TGRS EVO 9 Group N the car lately used by Lebanese rally veteran Christian Kurban in the last Cedars rally.
It’s your first experience in Lebanon, how do you find it so far?
Well I think the atmosphere is very good and there are many good cars and very good drivers. I didn’t expect so many cars but things re looking good and I like the fact that there are many spectators too.
What brought you to Lebanon?
I am looking forward to doing the Middle East Rally championship in the future so I decided to participate in Lebanon and Dubai rallies this year so I can prepare. It’s a good start so I came here to practice.
So you’re planning to do the whole MERC championship?
We will be doing selected rounds in the rally championship and not in the Hill Climb Championship and this is why I’m in Lebanon to try to prepare. We are not sure yet for the future but for this year we are fully focused on trying to Dubai and Lebanon.
The Lebanese Public doesn’t know you very well, so can you introduce yourself to motorsport fans in this country?
I am 30 years old and I have started rallying in turkey 6 years ago. 3 years ago I started doing international rallies and I finished second in a Ford Fiesta rally cup. I am also 5 times Turkish rally champion for ladies. In 2008 I was group N3 champion in Turkey as well as Fiesta cup champion in Turkey against 14 or 15 guys. In 2009 I finished group A champion in turkey as well as ladies champion too. This year we are competing in the Turkish championship on a Fiat Punto S2000, but unfortunately we missed the first round. In the second round we were running 4th but we had to retire, but we are looking forward to the coming event in the 3rd and 4th of July. We are hoping to compete in some international rallies as well as some WRC events too.
We saw that in all the events you participated in you never drove a group N car, why is that?
Well I only tested a group N car once in a gravel rally in Turkey, and I never drove such a car on tarmac. Anyway my experience on tarmac is very low and I’m trying to increase it since most of the rallies I do are on gravel.
How did you find the team and the car preparation?
They are very good and I am very happy.
Do you think they are on the professional level that you expected?
Yes they sure are.
What are your expectations for the Hill Climb event on Sunday?
Well I don’t know the competitors and the road so I can’t tell for sure. Everybody did the runs yesterday and I only tried today so I can’t tell.
Are you satisfied with your runs today?
Well I wish I had more runs so I can change some things in the setup, but with 3 runs it’s impossible. This will be an experience for me and we will see how things will go.
You are a Red Bull athlete like Abdo Feghali in Lebanon; tell us a little about this experience.
Well it is an amazing experience. You get to have great connections and the privilege to do many things. I tested with Sebastian Ogier and Chris Meeke. It’s an honor to have the Red Bull branding. The fact that I have Red Bull branding opened a lot of international opportunities for me. I went to Pakistan in collaboration with Red Bull so it was an amazing experience. We are planning more events with Red Bull so I’m looking forward to them.
One of the reasons of your presence in Lebanon is Serge Akiki. What do tell us about him and are you planning something together?
Well we are not planning anything in precise but I need to benefit from his experience in the Middle East since I don’t know anything here. As I told you before we are looking forward for a full championship in 2012 or 2013 for sure. This year I’m going to try to do Lebanon and Dubai and Syria if it is not cancelled. I am ready to go to Syria if the event is not cancelled, I’m not afraid. So Serge’s advice will be very important and he is a friend and he helped me a lot.
We talked a lot about your short term plans what are your long term plans?
Well I’m looking to win international rallies in the world championship.
We know that your favorite driver is Michel Mouton, why is that?
She is ultimately the best. Nobody ever came near her. She won many rounds in the World Rally Championship and she nearly won the championship itself. No woman has ever come close to her success and this makes her very special.
Can you emulate her success?
Well I can’t say for sure again, but maybe if I started 5 years earlier it would have been better. Anyway succeeding like her is very difficult especially if you come from a place like Turkey where whenever you have a small failure the budget goes away. I’m trying and I will keep on trying. The problem we are suffering is that the budget is always up and down. No Body want to work long term and this happened with us with Peugeot were they decided to stop the IRC campaign in May and didn’t tell us before which led us not completing the championship.
Anyway we could have been competing with other teams this year in IRC if Peugeot told us before. It is a big blow for our career but we will bounce back and start again.
Any last message ahead of the race on Sunday?
Never give up.
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