Toprak Razgatlioglu is having a tough early part of the season. The young Turkish talent first suffered a crash when riding on behalf of Josh Hook for Grillini in WorldSBK in Australia in which he broke his foot, before suffering a further injury during the Warm Up session ahead of his STK1000 debut at MotorLand Aragón, rendering him unable to race.

Razgatlioglu was unable to line up on the grid after having been declared unfit due to the injuries to his right arm, and the last STK600 Champion therefore missed his racing debut in his permanent class of competition in 2016. He is hoping to be fit to race in Assen in the Netherlands to get his new adventure back on track.

“My arm is better, and I hope it will be even better in Assen,” confirmed Razgatlioglu. “If there are no problems, I´m expecting to race in the Netherlands.”

Toprak had qualified 11th ahead of his debut, ready to enjoy his first race from the middle of the fourth row despite having had such a disrupted run-up to his first STK1000 race.

“I was ok but I hadn’t been able to train for the first race and I wasn’t able to adjust everything I wanted to on the bike,” explained the young Turk. “On the Sunday in Aragón I had some bad luck, but I´m trying to be ready for Assen and I’ll do everything I can to get onto the podium. That’s always my goal.”

STK1000 will see lights out in Assen on Sunday the 17^th of April at 14:20 (GMT +2), after WorldSBK and WorldSSP lay down some rubber at the legendary venue.