"Halo, hadirin sekalian, selamat datang di putaran final kejuaraan CIK-FIA KF-Junior 2012. Musim ini penuh kejutan, termasuk kehadiran peserta baru di pertengahan musim yang mendapat izin khusus dari TOSFED. Meski usianya masih sangat muda, ia berhasil melewati semua proses persetujuan yang relevan sebelum akhirnya mengantongi lisensi Grade C yang dibutuhkan untuk balapan di kategori ini," ujar Süleyman, memulai komentarnya lima menit sebelum balapan final dimulai.
Baik Süleyman maupun Zakir adalah komentator ajang balap TOSFED yang bertugas di semua acara. Hal ini dimungkinkan karena jadwal acara yang diatur sedemikian rupa, sehingga empat kategori kejuaraan berbeda dapat berlangsung dalam satu bulan, dengan masing-masing kategori mendapatkan satu akhir pekan penuh.
"Bagi yang baru bergabung atau menonton untuk pertama kalinya dan belum mendengar kisah lengkapnya, tolong rangkumkan untuk kami. Saya tidak akan pernah bosan mendengarnya; rasanya seperti cerita dari film. Saya sendiri tidak akan percaya jika tidak menyaksikannya dengan mata kepala saya sendiri," kata Zakir, memberi kesempatan bagi Süleyman untuk mengulas situasi tersebut demi membangun ikatan emosional penonton dengan balapan dan dunia Karting.
"Siapalah saya hingga menolak tanggung jawab terhormat ini?" sahut Süleyman, yang disambut tawa keduanya sebelum ia mulai merangkum situasi.
"Meskipun ada banyak kejutan musim ini, yang paling gila adalah Fatih Yıldırım. Dia adalah anak ajaib yang saat ini didukung penuh oleh TOSFED untuk memastikan dia berkembang di lingkungan terbaik. Sepertinya mereka sadar bahwa Fatih adalah satu dari sedikit orang yang berpeluang menembus panggung internasional dan mengibarkan bendera Turki. Ini bukan pilih kasih, karena dia telah menunjukkan hasil yang sepadan dengan dukungan yang dia terima dari TOSFED.
Setelah memenangkan musim kompetisi pertamanya—yang ia mulai hanya beberapa bulan setelah pertama kali mengemudikan kart—dia terus mendominasi musim kedua tanpa memberi kesempatan siapa pun untuk menantangnya. Dia mencatatkan enam kemenangan dari enam balapan dengan akhir pekan yang sempurna.
Bagi yang baru mengenal olahraga ini, itu berarti memimpin setiap sesi, meraih pole position, memenangkan balapan, dan mencetak waktu putaran tercepat. Namun, Fatih melampaui itu; dia mencatatkan nol aksi menyalip karena dia tidak pernah berada di posisi selain pole position. Tidak ada yang bisa melawannya, dan dia memimpin setiap putaran sepanjang musim.
Melihat dia telah membuktikan diri dan berisiko membuat kategori mini yang diikutinya kehilangan daya saing karena tidak ada yang mampu menandinginya, serta menunjukkan kedewasaan yang luar biasa, TOSFED menyetujui permintaan pelatih dan ibunya untuk memberikan izin khusus pindah ke kategori berikutnya. Jika tidak, dia berisiko mengalami stagnasi karena kurangnya kompetisi.
Setelah evaluasi mental, fisik, dan kemampuan mengemudi, dia mendapatkan persetujuan itu. Bukan di kategori KF-Junior yang sekarang, melainkan di KF-Mini, satu tingkat di atas kategori dasar (Bambino). Namun, hanya dalam tiga balapan pertama, performanya membuktikan bahwa di kategori ini pun tidak ada yang bisa menandinginya. Dia kembali mendominasi seolah-olah sudah berpengalaman. Khawatir dia akan bosan karena kompetisi yang terlalu mudah, TOSFED mengambil langkah berani dengan mengadakan evaluasi privat menggunakan kart KF-Junior untuk melihat apakah dia bisa menanganinya sepanjang akhir pekan.
Hasilnya, dalam keputusan yang belum pernah terjadi sebelumnya, mereka memberikan lisensi Grade C kepada Fatih yang baru berusia sembilan tahun—padahal syarat minimalnya adalah 12 tahun—mulai dari balapan ketiga yang berlangsung hanya seminggu setelah balapan ketiga KF-Mini-nya. Sejak saat itu, kita melihat performa yang membuat siapa pun yang menyaksikannya merinding.
Pada balapan pertamanya, di mana dia harus menggunakan pemberat dua puluh kilogram agar mencapai berat minimum 145 kg, dan hanya seminggu setelah pertama kali mengemudikan kart KF-Junior, dia kembali mendominasi akhir pekan. Dia mengubah kejuaraan KF-Junior yang sangat kompetitif menjadi ajang bagi para pemimpin klasemen untuk sekadar mempertahankan posisi mereka agar sedekat mungkin dengan Fatih.
Sejak akhir pekan kejuaraan pertama itu, dia jelas menjadi target utama. Sayangnya, TOSFED tidak bisa terus menaikkan levelnya karena tingkat berikutnya adalah KF-Senior atau KF2. Itu adalah olahraga internasional dengan persyaratan usia yang ketat, sehingga mereka tidak bisa mengambil keputusan sendiri.
Bahkan jika mereka mengizinkannya meski ada risiko dari kart yang lebih cepat dan berat, pihak penyelenggara dan badan pemberi sanksi tidak akan bisa meyakinkan asuransi dan perlindungan hukum jika terjadi sesuatu yang berbahaya.
Bahkan di kategori KF-Junior saat ini, TOSFED harus menjamin pertanggungan kewajiban dan asuransi jika terjadi sesuatu padanya. Namun syukurlah, tidak ada yang terjadi—atau lebih tepatnya, dia bahkan tidak membiarkan celah sekecil apa pun untuk terjadinya masalah. Selain itu, mereka harus menahannya di sini agar dia tidak jatuh seperti Icarus yang terbang terlalu dekat dengan matahari sebelum dia memiliki perekat yang lebih kuat untuk sayapnya," Süleyman berhenti sejenak setelah berbicara selama lebih dari dua menit, terdengar lebih seperti humas Fatih daripada komentator netral.
"Sebagai seseorang yang menyaksikan balapan pertamanya dan mendapat berkah melihatnya naik kelas namun tetap mempertahankan dominasinya, saya tidak sabar menantikan apa yang bisa dia tunjukkan di masa depan. Ngomong-ngomong, apakah Anda sudah melihat video yang dia unggah minggu lalu di saluran YouTube-nya?" tanya Zakir, beralih ke topik lain yang masih berkaitan.
"Akan memalukan jika saya bilang belum. Dan kalau saya bilang terkejut, itu terlalu meremehkan. Siapa sangka saya akan hidup untuk melihat docutainment berkualitas tinggi—begitu dia menyebutnya—dibuat tentang kategori mini yang menampilkan kart Bambino? Hampir tidak ada orang di dunia otomotif Turki yang belum menontonnya. TOSFED bahkan memperhatikan dan mengirim memo baru tentang penyediaan rekaman mentah balapan yang diikuti Fatih. Mereka bahkan menambah jumlah kamera di lintasan karena ini adalah iklan yang sangat positif bagi mereka. Video itu sudah ditonton lebih dari dua juta kali dalam seminggu dan momentumnya terus naik," ujar Süleyman, secara halus mempromosikan video tersebut kepada penonton.
Perubahan ini terjadi sejak musim keduanya, di mana Rümeysa, setelah melihat Aslan bermain politik, mulai melakukan hal yang sama. Dengan putranya yang tampil dominan dan tak terkalahkan, pengaruhnya meningkat seiring setiap performa gemilang Fatih. Dia memiliki daya tawar lebih karena mengingatkan mereka bahwa Fatih memiliki kewarganegaraan ganda. Jika mereka tidak mengakomodasi bakatnya, dia bisa saja berkemas dan pindah ke Jerman atau ke mana pun di Eropa di mana Fatih bisa mendapatkan kompetisi yang lebih baik dengan membawa bendera Jerman.
Meskipun terbiasa dengan fenomena 'brain drain' (larinya talenta), TOSFED biasanya tidak punya suara apakah pembalap berbakat itu tetap membawa bendera Turki atau tidak. Namun sekarang, karena Rümeysa memberi mereka pilihan, mereka tentu memilih opsi yang menguntungkan mereka. Ini adalah situasi yang saling menguntungkan selama Fatih terus memberikan hasil.
"Meskipun saya ingin terus membahasnya dan videonya, kita harus kembali ke acara utama hari ini: balapan final. Jika Fatih finis pertama dan pemimpin kejuaraan finis di posisi ketiga, Fatih akan mencatatkan pencapaian super kejuaraan, setelah memulai dari putaran ketiga dengan nol poin namun mampu bangkit dan memenangkan kejuaraan di putaran final," kata Zakir, mengalihkan perhatian kembali ke lintasan saat lap formasi akan dimulai dalam sepuluh detik.
"Itu akan menjadi hasil yang menarik, tapi sekarang kita harus kembali bersikap netral. Penantian panjang telah berakhir, dan lap formasi dimulai. Fatih, di pole position, memimpin para pembalap mengelilingi lintasan untuk memanaskan ban dan melakukan pemeriksaan terakhir sebelum balapan dimulai. Saya tidak bisa membayangkan tingkat tekanan yang dirasakan Fatih dan pemimpin kejuaraan saat ini, tapi kita sudah tahu bahwa Fatih mampu tampil di bawah tekanan.
Hal yang sama belum terbukti pada pemimpin kejuaraan, dan saya harap dia bisa melakukannya. Meskipun dia mungkin kesulitan merebut posisi terdepan dari Fatih, dia masih bisa berjuang untuk kejuaraan jika dia mempertahankan posisi kedua.
Tapi itu hanya jika Fatih tidak mencoba mengulangi apa yang dia lakukan pada Selçuk di musim pertamanya. Dia adalah mimpi buruk saat dia ingin Anda finis di posisi ketiga," ujar Süleyman, suaranya kembali bersemangat karena kemungkinan strategis yang tersedia, tidak seperti balapan-balapan sebelumnya di mana Fatih muda mendominasi sendirian.
"Hello, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the final round of the 2012 CIK-FIA KF-Junior championship, which has brought us many surprises, including a near mid-season new participant who was given special permission by TOSFED despite his young age to move up after going through all of the relevant approval processes before being given the required Grade C license needed to race in this category," Süleyman said, starting his commentating five minutes before the final race was about to start.
Both Süleyman and Zakir were the de facto TOSFED events commentators, participating in all events, which was made possible due to the events being staggered, allowing for four different championship categories to take place within a month, with each one having a full weekend to itself.
"For those who are new or watching for the first time and have yet to hear the full story, please recap it for us. I will never get tired of hearing it, as it sounds like it came directly from a movie, and I wouldn’t have believed it had I not borne witness to it with my own eyes," Zakir said, setting the stage for Süleyman to recap the situation for the new viewers and attendees in order to increase their emotional bond with the race and Karting overall due to the interesting nature of the situation.
"Who am I to deny such an honorable responsibility?" Süleyman said, causing both of them to chuckle before he started recapping the situation.
"Though there were many surprises this season, the wildest one was Fatih Yıldırım, the prodigy that TOSFED is currently providing their full support to ensure he develops in the best environment possible, as it seems they have realized that he is possibly one of the very few people who have the chance of going on the international stage and representing the Turkish flag. It was not favoritism at all, as he has shown results that backed the level of support he is receiving from TOSFED.
After winning his first-ever competitive season, which he started only a few months after driving a kart for the first time, he went on to dominate the second season, not giving anyone an opportunity to challenge him. He went six for six with perfect weekends.
For those who are new to the sport, that means leading every session, qualifying on pole, winning the race, and taking away the fastest lap. But Fatih went beyond that, as he logged zero overtakes to achieve that, meaning he never held any position other than pole position, had no one fight him for it and led every single lap of the season.
Seeing that he had proven himself and risked the mini category he was in becoming uncompetitive due to no one being able to challenge him, and having shown considerable maturity, TOSFED approved his coach’s and mother’s request to give him special permission to move to the next category. Otherwise, it risked him stagnating due to not having any competition.
After mental, physical, and driving evaluations, he was provided that approval, but not in the KF-Junior category he is currently in, but in its KF-Mini category, just one category above the basic mini(Bambino) category he was in, allowing him to start this season in this new category.
However, in just the first three races, the performance he had shown was enough to prove that even in this category, no one was going to be able to challenge him. He once again dominated as if he had experience in it before, and worrying that he might get bored due to easy competition, TOSFED bit the bullet and called for a private evaluation on a KF-Junior Kart to see if he could handle it over a whole weekend session.
As a result, in an unprecedented decision following the test, they gave Fatih, a nine-year-old, the required Grade C license to compete in a competition with a minimum entry requirement of 12, starting from its third race that took place just a week after his KF-Mini’s third race. And from him, we saw a performance that still causes goosebumps on anyone who saw it.
In his first race, where he ended up requiring twenty kilos of ballast to reach the minimum required weight of 145 kg and a week after driving a KF-Junior kart for the first time in his life, he once again dominated the weekend, turning the very competitive KF-Junior championship into a fight for the championship leaders trying to keep their lead by finishing as close to Fatih as possible.
From that first championship weekend, he had shown very clearly that he was the new target. But unfortunately, TOSFED can’t continue upgrading him since the next level is KF-Senior or KF2, but that is an international sport, and the age requirements are strict enough that they can’t make that decision on their own.
Even if they gave it to him despite the higher risks of faster and heavier karts, the venues hosting these competitions and the sanctioning bodies would not be able to convince insurance coverage and legal protection in case something dangerous happened.
Even in the KF-Junior category he is currently in, it required TOSFED to promise to cover the liabilities and insurance in case something happened to him. But thankfully, nothing has happened, or rather, he hasn’t let even an opportunity for something to happen appear in the first place. Also, they need to keep him here to prevent him from falling like Icarus if he flies too close to the sun before he has better glue for his wings," Süleyman paused after speaking for more than two minutes straight, sounding more like a PR person for Fatih than the supposed neutral commentator.
"As someone who has seen his first ever race and had the blessing of seeing him move up in categories and still keep his dominance, I can’t help but look forward to what he has and can show us in the future. By the way, have you seen the video he posted last week on his YouTube channel?" Zakir said, changing to a different topic, although still about the same subject.
"It would be a disgrace to say I didn’t, and to say I’m surprised would be an understatement. Who would think that I would live to see such a high-quality docutainment, as he calls it, being made about a mini category showing Bambino Karts? There is almost no one in Turkish motorsports sphere who hasn’t watched it, and TOSFED even took notice, as they sent a new memo about providing Fatih with the raw footage of the recorded races he participated in. They have even increased the number of cameras on the track since it is a very positive advertisement for them, now that the video has exceeded two million views in a span of a week and it looks like its momentum is going to continue rising the more people it is recommended to.
Though I was sad that my voice was replaced by an English counterpart, that disappointment disappeared when I found myself in the final credits, thanking me. Plus, since it is in English, it means it will reach an even greater audience. He even went as far as to include subtitles in twenty different languages. I wonder who runs his PR side of things, as they are very smart," Süleyman said, subtly advertising the video to those present today, as that was the memo from TOSFED, who were now all-in on Fatih thanks to the level of talent he had shown.
This change happened starting from his second season, where Rümeysa, having seen Aslan play the politics game, she too started doing so. With her son showing a dominant and unbeaten drive, her influence increased with each dominant performance he delivered, giving her more leverage as she reminded them that Fatih had dual nationality. Should they not accommodate his talent, which he had more than proven, she could just pack their bags and move to Germany or anywhere in Europe where he would have better competition while driving under the German flag.
Though used to talent drain, TOSFED usually didn’t have a say in whether those talented drivers remained and drove under the Turkish flag. But now that Rümeysa had approached them and gave them the ability to decide if Fatih drove under another flag depending on how they accommodated his talent, they obviously chose the option that better served their interest and accommodated him, as it was a win-win scenario for both of them so long as Fatih continued delivering.
"Although I would like to continue talking about it and his video, we have to return to the main event of today: the final race. Should Fatih finish first and the championship leader finish in P3, Fatih is going to have accomplished mounting a super championship drive, having started from the third round with zero points yet being able to recover and win the championship in the final round," Zakir said, bringing the attention back to the track as the formation lap was about to start with ten seconds on the clock.
"That would be an interesting outcome, but we now have to put our neutral caps back on. The long wait is over, and the formation lap begins. Fatih, on pole position, takes the lead, leading the drivers around the track to warm up their tires and do final checkups before the race start. I can’t imagine the level of pressure both Fatih and the championship leader must be feeling at the moment, but we already know that Fatih delivers under pressure.
The same is not yet known about the championship leader, and I hope he does because although he might have a problem taking the lead from Fatih, he can still fight for the championship if he keeps his P2 position.
But that is only if Fatih doesn’t try to repeat what he did to Selçuk in his first season of karting. He was a nightmare to drive against when he wanted you to finish in P3," Süleyman said, his voice reinvigorated with excitement about the upcoming race due to the strategic possibilities available, unlike the last few races where the young Fatih dominated.
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