Toprak Razgatlioglu to be missed “a lot” by remaining Turkish WorldSBK star

The 2026 WorldSBK season will be the series’ first without the presence of Toprak Razgatlioglu since 2013, and one rider in particular expects to notice the three-time World Champion’s absence.

Bahattin Sofuoglu joined the World Superbike paddock five years after Razgatlioglu in the WorldSSP300 class in 2019, and has grown up there with the presence of his older compatriot and training partner, finally stepping up to the Superbike class in 2025.

Although Sofuoglu will still have Supersport rider Can Oncu in the paddock as a fellow Turkish rider and someone he trains with regularly as part of Kenan Sofuoglu’s training facility, he feels he will miss Razgatlioglu.

“A lot! Actually, a lot,” MotoxRacing’s Sofuoglu told WorldSBK.com, speaking on the first day of the post-race Jerez test on 21 October, when asked if he will miss Razgatlioglu in 2026.

“Now I’m here alone and I want to do my best, the only Turkish rider in Superbike. 

“I hope I can be like him [Razgatlioglu] in the future, and also I’m really excited to watch his races, his tests, in MotoGP, too.”

First test in a year

For many of the riders at the Jerez test, it was a test that came after a season littered with chances to try new setups, items, and even entire new bikes in the case of some of the Ducati riders.

For Sofuoglu, though, it was his first chance to test since the preseason and, after his first year of World Superbike, he understandably had many things he wanted to try.

“Actually, it was better than we expected,” Sofuoglu said of the post-race Jerez test.

“We finished very well in this test. 

“In the morning, when the test was able to start, the rain started and we had to wait until the lunch break. After the lunch break, we had to make our plan for the test, which was a lot of parts to try. 

“We tried step-by-step all of them. For example, we tried four parts and three of them we liked. 

“The first time, after one year, we tested, and there were a lot of things to try for us. 

“On electronics side also we are happy. 

“In the end we did a good lap time, and after that lap time we found another thing, too, but we didn’t have enough tyres anymore. 

“We are so happy with this result, and we are so motivated for the next one.”

He added that, now out of the season, he has more freedom to try some of the things that he “Now we are more free in mind, after the season also,” he said.

“Now we can test anything in our mind, which is a lot, and after that we see these things benefit, too. 

“Then we were able to do better lap times compared to [the Spanish Round].”