Azerbaijan's victorious 16-year-old racer says he wants to be world champion
By Nazrin Gadimova
Azerbaijan's 16-year-old driver Gulhuseyn Abdullayev has again become the champion of Turkey on kart racing for adults, taking the first place in the "senior" category at another stage of the competition.
Abdullayev will represent Azerbaijan at the Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals 2013 world championships on kart racing in the U.S., due on November 13-16 in New Orleans.
"Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals is the biggest event in the sport with the best pilots from 60 countries participating," Abdullayev said. "I am the champion of Azerbaijan, but since kart racing competitions are not held in our country, I have to compete in Turkey. Only those who have won the competition can participate in championships. Since 2011, I have tried to take part in such competitions, but only 2013 has been successful in this regard as I won Rotax Max Challenge Turkey in the 'junior' category and gained the right to participate at the World Cup in the United States. I am proud that for the first time Azerbaijan will be represented at the world championships on kart racing in the United States. What could be better than a 16-year-old guy raising the flag of Azerbaijan in the United States? I am very excited ahead of the event."
Abdullayev told journalists that this year he was admitted to the department of dentistry at the Medipol University in Istanbul.
"Like my father, I will be a dentist, but I really want to be a world champion on Formula 1 racing, and I will do everything to make it happen," he said.
The young driver, who is a grandson of famous Azerbaijani writer Gulhuseyn Huseynoglu, has been interested in motor sports since he was eight, when he began to take special lessons and then he took part in championships among the juniors held in Turkey. Abdullayev began to study kart racing professionally in 2011.
Rotax Max Challenge (RMC) is a kart racing series owned and organized worldwide by BRP-Rotax and its distributors, approved and complying with CIK-FIA, the primary international sanctioning body for kart racing. The competition takes place on national, international and continental levels and culminates with the Grand Finals once a year.