The question had been itching away longer than he’d anticipated.
When am I finally going to win? What do I have to do?
It wasn’t meant to go this way. Ali Türkkan had looked like a potential title contender one stage into his 2024 Junior WRC season. On the opening stage of Croatia Rally – he’d missed the season opener in Sweden – he’d gone 16.8 seconds faster than the rest of the field.
Boom. Welcome to the party.
It only lasted one more stage and then – boom. Car crashed.
The expectation was it would be a blip. That the speed would translate into a win at some point.
Finally, on Acropolis Rally Greece last month, it did. But it was a longer wait than anyone had expected.
It was painful. We were always close to winning but it would never happenAli Türkkan
In among the madness of a rally finish, Türkkan and his navigator Oytun Albayrak had found some peace and quiet. Arriving long after the buzz of the media zone had died out, his Ford Fiesta Rally3 was shuttled directly into the queue for the finish ramp. That meant plenty of waiting – and plenty of time to reflect on a journey to win that look longer than it perhaps should have.
Türkkan winds the clock back to that fateful Croatia Rally a year earlier: “It was a stupid mistake by my side,” he told DirtFish. “I wasn’t going too fast or something, I just misunderstood a pace note, crashed and broke the ribs of my ex-co-driver [Burak Erdener].”
What followed was a series of near misses for victories that made it look as if he’d walked under too many ladders, or perhaps broken too many mirrors.
“OK, we go to Sardinia [after Croatia],” said Türkkan. “We were leading again and puncture. We didn’t change it and that puncture broke the car: brake disc, everything. We were late to time control and lost a win again.
“In Finland, I was leading, I was winning stages, but my ex-co-driver forgot his time card in the hotel and on the Friday morning, we had a 10-second penalty. We lost the rally [win] by 2.1 seconds.
Victory in Finland was lost to a timekeeping penalty
“It was painful, you know. We were always close to winning but it would never happen.”
A podium on his first attempt at Rally Sweden was a decent start to 2025 but he was off the pace in Portugal. This writer had suggested he’d be in the title hunt alongside Taylor Gill and Mille Johansson – but two rounds in and he was already starting to fall perilously far behind in the standings.
It was time for a course correction. Türkkan had a plan for the Acropolis.
“On Friday you have nothing to lose,” said Türkkan. “You just start the rally; you need to win stages and make a gap.”
After day one, mission successful. He won five out of seven stages, albeit losing over 20s while stuck in the dust of another car on the day’s final test. But, still, a 21.8s lead meant all was going to plan.
Türkkan rose to every challenge Greece could throw at him
Then came the potential sticking point. Pavliani, second pass. It was rough. Very rough. This, remember, was the stage that both Kalle Rovanperä and Takamoto Katsuta went off on – and Hikaru Kogure had rolled off the side of a mountain during the first pass, à la Jani Paasonen two decades earlier.
With a giant thud, Johansson’s rally ground to a halt, impact damage ruining the cooling on his Fiesta Rally3. Gill had to stop twice to change punctures and lost almost five minutes.
Suddenly it was Türkkan’s time to fall on the right side of fortune.
“We noticed it very early in the recce,” said Türkkan of Pavliani’s potential to be decisive. “We said it’s going to be so rough in the second pass – but you know, there’s Mille and Taylor, they are so fast that even if it’s rough, you always have to push because they are coming behind.
“It was half a minute [advantage] with Mille but if you make a mistake, he is coming like a shark, so you should be focused!
No advantage is ever comfortable over shark-like Johansson
“We managed our pace, avoided mistakes, avoided the rocks, but in the clean parts, we always pushed and found a great balance between them.
“That’s how we won.”
Painful memories of incidents robbing him of victories still loomed large. On Sunday he backed way off. Each stage win means a bonus point for the championship standings – but Türkkan wasn’t going to risk throwing away a first Junior WRC win.
“On Sunday morning we said, ‘OK, that’s enough,’” he said. “We shouldn’t be pushing anymore because my family is here. Everybody’s waiting at the finish of Tarzan and we need to give them something! We can’t just crash and break the car at the last stage while leading [by] over five minutes. It would be stupid.”
There was no late mistake. After two years of trying, Türkkan was finally victorious.
Tribulations of past two seasons made Acropolis victory taste all the sweeter
It hasn’t brought him directly into the thick of the title race. But it’s put him within reach of it, especially considering the season finale – Central European Rally – is a double-points affair.
An important step on the pathway to the top level is finally checked off. The next goal is to catch Johansson and Gill. But there’s already an eye on the future: Türkkan tested a Ford Puma Rally1 at Greystoke earlier this year.
One eye remains on the ultimate prize: drive at the very pinnacle of rallying. There was talk of him already getting a spin in a Puma on a WRC event this season. While unlikely, he’s not given up on that goal.
“Maybe at the end of the JWRC season there are a couple of WRC rounds and if Castrol wants to see ourselves driving a Rally1, we are always ready, always,” he said.
Could iconic Castrol livery soon return to WRC's top tier?
So, Castrol it is then – a familiar livery to top-level Ford WRC machines.
“They look nice,” said Türkkan. “Even our Rally3 looks nice. So imagine a Ford Puma in white, red and green.”
There remain a few unanswered questions. But the one that was overdue a resolution has finally been resolved. Türkkan is a Junior WRC winner, at last.
