Erkut Kızılırmak (born 14 September 1969) is an

auto racing Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organise ...

driver from

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

. He started racing in

rallying Rally is a wide-ranging form of motorsport with various competitive motoring elements such as speed tests (often called ''rally racing),'' navigation tests, or the ability to reach waypoints or a destination at a prescribed time or average speed. ...

in 1992 and switched to

touring cars Touring car racing is a motorsport road racing competition with heavily modified road-going cars. It has both similarities to and significant differences from stock car racing, which is popular in the United States. While the cars do not move ...

in 2002, at the age of 32. In 2005 he won the Turkish Touring Car Championship, in a Vauxhall Astra Coupé formerly raced by

Yvan Muller Yvan Muller (born 16 August 1969 in Altkirch, Haut-Rhin) is a French auto racing driver most noted for success in touring car racing. He is a four-time World Touring Car Champion, winning the title in 2008 with SEAT, in 2010 and 2011 with Chevro ...

in the

BTCC The Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship is a touring car racing series held each year in the United Kingdom, currently organised and administered by TOCA. It was established in 1958 as the British Saloon Car Championship and was renamed as ...

. He also made an appearance in the Turkish round of the

World Touring Car Championship The FIA World Touring Car Championship was an international touring car championship promoted by Eurosport Events and sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). It has had several different incarnations, including a sin ...

in 2005 driving an ex works SEAT Toledo for the GR Asia team alongside Tom Coronel. BTCC Brands Hatch 2007 (443340602)

His connections with the series and the

Triple 8 Race Engineering Triple Eight Racing was a motorsports team formed in 1996 as Triple Eight Race Engineering, which competed in the British Touring Car Championship and the British GT Championship. The team's original focus was to design, build and race Vaux ...

company, increased in 2006, with Erkut becoming the first Turkish driver to compete in the BTCC when he raced at

Croft Croft may refer to: Occupations * Croft (land), a small area of land, often with a crofter's dwelling * Crofting, small-scale food production * Bleachfield, an open space used for the bleaching of fabric, also called a croft Locations In the Uni ...

in a

BTC-T Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch The BTC-T Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch is a BTC-Touring class racing car that was built for the 2005 British Touring Car Championship season by Triple 8 Race Engineering, who ran Vauxhall's official works program. Works history After campaigning ...

, converted from one of the team's show cars. He also competed at

Snetterton Snetterton is a village and civil parish in Norfolk, England. The village is about east-northeast of Thetford and southwest of Norwich. The civil parish has an area of . The United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 Census recorded a parish population o ...

, where he achieved his best result - 13th. On 9 February 2007 Erkut announced that he would be competing in the full BTCC championship in 2007, in an ex VX Racing Astra Sport Hatch. His Arkas Team unites with

Tech-Speed Motorsport Tech-Speed Motorsport is a British auto racing team who compete in the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) and various historic race categories which was founded in 1984. The team races under the name of M247 Racing. MGF Cup - Tech-Speed ...

to run the car. Two tenth-places in the high-attrition round 8 at

Brands Hatch Brands Hatch is a motor racing circuit in West Kingsdown, Kent, England, United Kingdom. Originally used as a grasstrack motorcycle circuit on farmland, it hosted 12 runnings of the British Grand Prix between 1964 and 1986 and currently host ...

gave him his only 2 overall points of the season, while he finished 9th in the Independents' Cup, showing some speed and gusto in a 2006-spec car. Erkut also won the first two races of the 2007

Turkish Touring Car Championship Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...

. In 2008 he returned for another season in the BTCC. This time as part of a two car team alongside

Martyn Bell Martyn Bell (born 17 July 1964) is an auto racing driver. Since 2006 he has contested the British Touring Car Championship, but he spent the majority of his career racing BMWs in various championships. He won one overall title and 3 class titles ...

with the renamed Team Arkas Racing with Sunshine.co.uk. His best result of the year was a tenth place finish in round six at

Rockingham Speedway Rockingham Speedway, formerly North Carolina Motor Speedway and later North Carolina Speedway is a racetrack located near Rockingham, North Carolina. It is also known as The Rock and previously hosted NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series, ...

, giving him his one championship point of the year.

Racing record

World Touring Car Championship

(

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

British Touring Car Championship

(

) (Races in bold indicate pole position - 1 point awarded in first race) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap - 1 point awarded all races) (* signifies that driver lead race for at least one lap - 1 point awarded all races)

External links

Profile on btcc.netbtcc:action ProfileProfile at BTCCPages.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kizilirmak, Erkut 1969 births Living people Turkish racing drivers British Touring Car Championship drivers World Touring Car Championship drivers Turkish rally drivers