ARKAS ‘FEELING FANTASTIC’ AFTER DEBUT TESTBritish Touring Car Championship entrant Arkas Racing made its first official on-track appearance at Northamptonshire’s Rockingham Motor Speedway today as part of the 2007 BTCC Media Day, a pre-cursor to the first race meeting of the season just under three weeks from now.The team, which is the sporting arm of Turkey’s Arkas Automotive Group, fielded one of its BTC-Touring specification Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch cars for lead driver Erkut Kizilirmak during the action-packed test and the 37-year-old from Istanbul declared himself delighted with his maiden run on the 1.95-mile International Supersports layout.“I feel absolutely fantastic”, said a beaming Erkut at the conclusion of his first outing in the Arkas Racing Astra, “Like almost all of the British circuits, Rockingham is new to me but we learned a lot today. We can’t expect too much in our first season but the progress we made today was very good.“Between our first run on the circuit today and the end of the test I managed to be faster by one and a half seconds so I’m happy with that. We need to continue to improve like this and then I think our aim of fighting in the midfield this year will be very possible.”Having become Turkish Touring Car Champion in 2005 at the wheel of an Opel Astra Coupe, the culmination of a highly successful circuit racing and rallying career in his homeland, Erkut’s BTCC race debut came last year at Croft Circuit in North Yorkshire where he piloted a VX Racing Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch.Following another run-out at Snetterton in mid-August, Erkut began work with long-time friend and business associate, Arkas marketing director Yalcin Arsan, on striking a deal with Triple Eight Engineering to purchase the three ‘works’ VX Racing Astras at the end of the 2006 season.While the day-to-day preparation of the Arkas Racing cars is handled by Leamington Spa-based touring car specialists Tech-Speed Motorsport, under the guidance of vastly experienced technical director Brian Ashwood, Banbury-based Triple Eight Engineering will continue to provide managerial and engineering support.With the introduction of S2000 cars into the British Touring Car Championship this year, drivers of BTC Touring-specification machinery will continue to score full points in each of the 30 races during the course of the year but will only be able to challenge for the Independents Trophy, not the full BTCC title which is contested by S2000 drivers only.Erkut added: “We’re all very excited about the year ahead. The team is great, the car is good and so we now need to work on our set-up to make sure we are strong for the first races at Brands Hatch. I really can’t wait, everything feels perfect.”The Arkas group is Turkey’s first multi-brand automotive dealership network and holds contracts with major manufacturers such as Ford, Opel (Vauxhall), Peugeot, Volvo and also Renault Trucks in the cities of Istanbul, Izmir an Bursa.Arkas Racing aims to establish a firm foot-hold in the BTCC this season and with the team bidding to field two cars in its debut championship campaign, talks with a number of British drivers to fill the vacant second seat are currently on-going. The team’s next scheduled test, meanwhile, is this Thursday, 15th March, at Donington Park.The first race meeting of the 30-round 2007 British Touring Car Championship season takes place at Brands Hatch Indy Circuit in Kent on Saturday, 31st March, and Sunday, 1st April, with the series also visiting such high-profile venues as Croft, Donington Park, Knockhill, Oulton Park, Rockingham, Snetterton and Thruxton. An announcement was also made at Rockingham today confirming ITV1, the nation’s number one commercial television channel, will continue to broadcast live coverage of the BTCC throughout 2007. Additional highlights programmes will be shown on cable, satellite and Freeview channel Men & Motors with further live coverage via satellite and cable subscription broadcaster Setanta Sports. Please check local listings for details.Driver Profile – Erkut KizilirmakNationality: TurkishAge: 37Date of Birth: 14th September 1969Born: Izmir, TurkeyLives: Istanbul, TurkeyMarital Status: Married with one sonOccupation: Director, Arkas AutomotiveCareer History:2006British Touring Car Championship – contested six races with VX Racing at the wheel of a BTC-Touring Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch;Turkish Touring Car Championship (Opel Astra Coupe)2005Turkish Touring Car Champion – three race victories (Opel Astra Coupe);World Touring Car Championship – one race (GR Asia SEAT Toledo)2004Turkish Touring Car Championship – second in 1600 Class (Opel Corsa);Turkish Renault Clio Cup – fourth overall2003Turkish Fiat Challenge – third overall (Fiat Palio);Turkish Renault Clio Cup – selected races2002Turkish Fiat Challenge – fourth overall (Fiat Palio)2000-2001Turkish Rally Championship (Group N Ford Escort Cosworth)1999Turkish Rally Championship (Ford Ka Challenge)1995-1996Turkish Rally Championship – several class wins (Group N2 Opel Corsa)1992-1994Rallying