Ali Türkkan and the JWRC Summit: Türkiye's First Rally World Championship

Motorsport News from Türkiye
Author: Mustafa Odabaşı
Creation: 11 October 2026

Ali Türkkan sealed Türkiye's first world championship in rallying by winning the 2026 Junior WRC title in Chile.

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Ali Türkkan, with his co-driver Bilge Ayan, won the 2026 FIA World Rally Championship for Juniors (Junior WRC), becoming the driver who brought Türkiye its first world championship in rallying. The championship, which was sealed with the finish of Rally Chile on September 13, 2026, also marks the first trophy in Junior WRC history to go to a Turkish name. In this article, we examine how the season went, the points battle in Chile, and what this achievement means for Turkish motorsport.

Highlights

September 13, 2026: Ali Türkkan became Junior WRC champion at the end of Rally Chile.
The achievement is Türkiye's first world championship in rallying.
Season: 5 rallies, 97 special stages, 22 stage wins, over 1,500 km of competition.
Prize: In 2027, four WRC2 events and a fully supported testing program with a Ford Fiesta Rally2.

What is Junior WRC, and who is it open to?

Junior WRC is an international series organized under the World Rally Championship (WRC), reserved for drivers under the age of 29. To summarize its purpose in one sentence: to race the world's best young rally drivers in identical equipment and equal conditions, preparing them to move up to the higher ranks of the WRC. The series lived through its 13th season in 2026, and some of the names who began their careers there later became established figures in the main category.

This season consisted of five events: the calendar opened in Sweden in February, passed through Croatia, Portugal and Finland, and ended in Chile in September. One of the details that defines the character of the series is the awarding of extra points on every special stage; you need to look not only at the overall classification but also at stage pace.

2026 season: Two wins and a points battle

For 27-year-old Türkkan, racing for Castrol Ford Team Türkiye, the season fell into place with his first victory at Rally Croatia. Holding onto the lead despite the pressure from Swedish rival Calle Carlberg, Türkkan took the first trophy of the season. Then came Portugal; there too he climbed to the top in the JWRC and finished the same rally second in the WRC3 class - a good indication that while competing in the junior series he could also score points in a higher class in the same weekend.

Finland was the season's bittersweet chapter. He was in the fight for the lead for the first two days, went off the road and lost time, but did not retire from the event. Just as the championship calculations seemed to close on that trajectory, the stage bonus points he earned for being one of the crews with the most stage wins allowed him to carry his title bid to Chile. This is sometimes exactly what experience means in this business: closing out a bad day with minimal damage and leaving the account open.

Event	Result / Role
Sweden	Season opener
Croatia	First win of the season
Portugal	Victory; 2nd place in WRC3
Finland	After a crash, kept the title bid alive with stage bonus points
Chile	2nd place; championship secured

The figures shared by the team for the season total are as follows: 5 rallies, 97 special stages, over 1,500 km of competition and 22 special stage wins. The team announced the figure of 120 for the total points; since we could not see direct confirmation of this total on the official points table, we report the figure with its caveat.

The Chile final: how did the one trailing 92 to 95 become champion?

Ali Türkkan, Şili finalinde ikinciliği garantileyerek JWRC şampiyonluğunu 13 Eylül'de matematiksel olarak resmileştirdi.

When the team went to Chile, the standings were against Türkkan: second place with 92 points, 3 points behind leader Carlberg. Since a double points system applied in the final, five drivers still had a mathematical chance of the championship; in other words, Chile alone carried an entire season.

Türkkan closed the first day in fifth place and grew his task step by step. As the pace rose, he climbed to the lead; throughout the rally Carlberg took four stage wins and Türkkan two - the stage bonus points changed the calculation here too. The final day passed with the kind of measured management an editor would appreciate: completing four stages at a cautious pace and minimizing risk. Finishing the rally in second place was enough for the championship, and it became mathematically official on September 13. The overall rally victory went to Finnish driver Lassila; but the real news of that weekend was not written in the stages in southern Chile, but in the standings.

The Turkish national anthem was recited on the podium, and the Turkish flag waved. When Türkkan returned home, he was greeted with flowers in Istanbul - a sight worth seeing even in the rally world, unaccustomed to such welcoming ceremonies.

What does this championship mean for Türkiye?

Türkiye has seen world championships in motorcycling: Kenan Sofuoğlu and Toprak Razgatlıoğlu paved the way. On the automobile side - or rather, in rallying - international victories always remained just out of reach. Türkkan's championship filled this gap; the Ministry of Youth and Sports described it in its message as "the greatest achievement in Turkish motorsport history." An excerpt from the statement by Minister Dr. Osman Aşkın Bak:

Ali Türkkan, who won Türkiye's first world championship in rallying, made us proud with the championship he achieved.
Dr. Osman Aşkın Bak, Minister of Youth and Sports

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also published a congratulatory message on social media, describing the achievement as the most important success in our motorsport history. Türkkan himself frames the matter this way: in a statement before Chile, he had said that the championship would be Türkiye's first world championship in rallying and that he wanted to add a new link, from motorsport, to the path opened in motorcycling by Sofuoğlu and Razgatlıoğlu. After the championship, he used the expression "in 10 years we will call ourselves a country of motorsports," and, stating that Türkiye is on its way to becoming a motorsport nation, asked for support from Turkish fans.

The three years of work behind the championship

The championship wasn't sudden; it was cumulative. Türkkan had become European Rally Champion in the Junior and Two-Wheel Drive categories in 2021. After moving to Junior WRC, he achieved two world third-place finishes in the 2024 and 2025 seasons - with co-driver Oytun Albayrak by his side in 2024 and 2025. In other words, this trophy is what appears at the end of the ledger of a name that has played for the top three years in a row; it is also worth noting that it was described on the wrc.com side as "three years in advance."

Let's also clarify a detail from the 2026 season in this context: the championship is credited to co-driver Bilge Ayan in official sources, while in news about the Portugal rally, Türkkan appears with his co-driver Oytun Albayrak. It is highly likely that he raced with two different co-drivers throughout the season; it is certain that he lifted the trophy with Bilge Ayan beside him.

The role of Castrol Ford Team Türkiye in the background must not be overlooked: since 1998, the team has carried the Turkish flag on the international stage, and this championship is the reward for nearly thirty years of effort.

The next step: what lies ahead on the WRC2 road?

The most tangible reward of the Junior WRC championship is the prize package: in the 2027 season, a fully supported test program with the Ford Fiesta Rally2 run by M-Sport and the right to enter four WRC2 rounds. Since WRC2 is the tier directly below the main WRC category, this is practically the standard door for a young driver to establish a permanent place in the world championship.

Türkkan's own goal is higher: in statements after the championship, he said that in the future he wants to compete in the WRC and reach the world title. There is nothing to prove or disprove that; but the data at hand is this - a driver who has managed to play for the top three times in three years now has the opportunity to race with a more capable car and a fully supported program. While Turkish drivers once had to struggle even to find this door, it has now been opened as an official prize. The difference itself is the measure of the success.

Conclusion: More than a trophy

Ali Türkkan's Junior WRC championship is a threshold beyond what the numbers in the table measure. Two wins, 22 stage victories, and this trophy won with the composed pace in Chile mark Turkish rallying's first appearance on the top step of the world stage. We will see four WRC2 rounds in 2027; time will tell what happens there. But it is already clear that September 13, 2026 will have a permanent place on the Turkish motorsport calendar.