The 2021 Superbike World Champion, Toprak Razgatlıoğlu, will leave the Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK Team at the end of the 2023 season as he and Yamaha amicably end their successful four-year relationship together, with the Turkish rider seeking a new challenge for 2024.
Razgatlıoğlu’s potential on two wheels was clear from a young age. He won several national Turkish Motocross Championship titles as a child before being crowned European Superstock 600 Champion on his first attempt in 2015. Moving up to the Superbike World Championship in 2018, he became the first Turkish rider to score a podium and record a win in the class before signing with Yamaha for the 2020 season.
Razgatlıoğlu got his Yamaha career off to a stunning start, winning on his debut at Phillip Island in 2020, before taking two more convincing victories in Estoril at the end of the year on his way to fourth in the championship standings.
The 2021 season bore witness to one of the greatest title battles in WorldSBK history, with Razgatlıoğlu facing off with Jonathan Rea for the world championship crown. Ultimately, the Turkish rider reigned supreme, taking 13 victories, 29 podiums and three pole positions to lift the 2021 Superbike World Championship, ending Rea’s six-year reign as champion and securing Yamaha’s first title in the class since Ben Spies in 2009.
In 2022, the Turkish star was again locked in a fierce championship battle alongside Rea and Ducati’s Alvaro Bautista. Razgatlıoğlu missed out on a second consecutive title but ended the season with more wins (14) than in 2021, as well as 29 podiums, and four pole positions. He also became Yamaha’s most successful rider in WorldSBK history with 30 victories, surpassing the previous record held by Noriyuki Haga.
The 2023 season has seen the Turkish rider show incredible consistency and pace, with the 26-year-old currently second in the overall standings, having secured one victory and ten further podiums in the first 12 races.
However, after four seasons, one world title, 31 race wins, and 47 other appearances on the podium with Yamaha in WorldSBK, Razgatlıoğlu has decided to take on a new challenge in 2024 and will exit the Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK Team at the end of this season. At the same time, both Yamaha and Razgatlıoğlu remain fully committed to fighting for the 2023 WorldSBK title.
