10 replies to this topic

[Darren Galpin]

There is a report in the San Antonio Light, 29th January 1928, which says "What is said to be the first automobile race in Turkey was held recently on the Makrikofer course, about eight miles from Constantinople, according to a report received by the National Automobile Club." Does anyone have any further details, like a date? Recently could mean anything from the previous week to late the previous year!

Edited by Darren Galpin, 16 June 2021 - 14:11.

[BRG]

I am intrigued!   Google Maps doesn't even recognise the name Makrikofer and I can't see anything close to Istanbul with a name even close to that.  It sounds slightly more Greek than Turkish so could be on the European side and maybe the name has been changed since then to a pure Turkish one?   

 

Google only throw up one result for 'Makrikofer' which is a rare result in it's self!  And that is another US newspaper report; this time from the Capital Times of Madison, Wisconsin but dated Nov 2 of 1928.  it uses very similar wording.  

 

But why is this referenced only in two provincial US papers and many months apart?

 

There appears to NIL info on Turkish motor racing history on-line!

[ReWind]

Bakırköy should be the place.

[Michael Ferner]

The Turkish AC lets the world know about its first ever competitive event... only the world doesn't really care. It may have taken months already for the news agency to pick up on it, and then the news snippet goes straight to the bin in most editing rooms. A few keep a drawer with snippets just like that, in case they need a quarter of an inch to fill a page, or for dire times of slow news. Some empty those drawers regularly to keep at least a semblance of chronological order, most don't give a damn. Deep down in this curio collection, between the horse born with five legs and the snowflakes in the sahara, there's the report from the Turkish AC, months or maybe even years after it was send out to an ignorant world. Newspaper realities.

[nexfast]

Can't vouch for the veracity of the site but there is some info here about the first races in Turkey. Seems the snippet stayed for quite a while in the drawer

 

https://travelatelie...rallies-turkey/

[D-Type]

Can't vouch for the veracity of the site but there is some info here about the first races in Turkey. Seems the snippet stayed for quite a while in the drawer

 

https://travelatelie...rallies-turkey/

Well, it does refer to a race in 1927 at Veliefendi Meadow  and the Wikipedia entry that Rewind linked to says "Built in 1913, Veliefendi Race Course, Turkey's largest and oldest modern horse-racing track (not including the ancient hippodromes in Turkey), is in close proximity."

 

Result?

[BRG]

Result?

Probably.  It all seems to fit.  Bakirkoy (the site of the current Istanbul main airport) does encompass the Veliefendi Meadows, even though that is a lot less than 8 miles from the big city.  Are we to imagine that this was an oval race held in the hippodrome?  Or was it a course using nearly roads?  This may even tax TNF!

[Vitesse2]

A bit of creative Google Translating has turned up the names of the winners of this 1927 race, who drove a 1926 Buick, defeating a field of thirty.

 

 

In the period when automobile races began to be organized in the world, only "horse carriages" could be made in Anatolia, since the Ottoman Empire missed the "Industrial Revolution". For this reason, the beginning of automobile sports in our country took place long after Western Europe. Automobile business in Turkey gained its official identity in 1923 with the establishment of the Turkish Touring and Automobile Association (TTOK), which was then called the "Turkish Traveler Society". 4 years after the establishment of TTOK, the first automobile race in our country was T.O.Ş.D.* 1926 Buick cars and the team of Suphi and Ziya Bey won this race, which was held by Istanbul Veliefendi meadow and in which 30 cars participated. Mustafa Kemal ATATÜRK participated in the climbing race held on the İstinye - Maslak road in 1931. It is known that the fame comes and celebrates the athletes and wants the Turkish youth to focus on this sport, which requires high technology. Afterwards, races were organized at the Istanbul Hippodrome and joint bets were made as in horse races. Samiye Morkaya, the first Turkish female auto racer, won some of these track races at that time.

“…In 1931, an automobile race was held on the road between İstinye and Maslak. Only Samiye Burhan Cahit Hanım had registered as a woman. He had no rival. Samiye Hanım wanted to compete in the men's class. The Organizing Committee and the Referee Committee saw no harm in this. Race started. Mrs. Samiye came first, outstripping all her male rivals with her Ford brand car…”

The runner-up of the race, Paşazade Vehbi Bey, protests on the grounds that “If the lady had not been included in the race, I would have been the winner”; the referees of the race cannot get out of the way and submit the objection to the judiciary; After all this noise, the Sultanahmet Magistrates Court, which is handling the case, decides that the trophy should be given to Samiye Hanım.

In addition to Samiye Hanım, we see Lemia Hanım, Muazzez İpar, Izetta Fracgini, Mademoiselle Blache and Azize Hanım, who challenged men behind the wheel, in the following races of that period, where there were 18 female deputies in the Turkish Grand National Assembly. In 1937, Azize Hanım became the Balkan Champion in the women's group in the Balkan Rally, which was held jointly with the Greek Elpa Club and where Ali Sami Yen was the head of the Turkish Organizing Committee. (Quote: Günaydın Newspaper, 11 June 1972)

Source: https://www.isok.org.tr/tarihce.php

 

* T.O.Ş.D. is presumably the initials of the organising club. Türkiye Otomobil Şpor Dallari?

 

More about the early history of the Türkiye Turing ve Otomobil Kurumu here (translate button is top right!) :

 

https://www.turing.org.tr/the-history/

 

And perhaps an email to these people might bear fruit?

 

http://www.klasikoto...tomobil-kulubu/

[BRG]

I may have moaned about the introduction of a Turkish GP back whenever it was, on the grounds that Turkey had no real motor racing culture.  Now it seems that there was, even if it had perhaps died out more recently.The fact that the then President himself competed in a hill-climb ("Mustafa Kemal ATATÜRK participated in the climbing race held on the İstinye - Maslak road in 1931") suggests that it was quite high profile at the time.

[Vitesse2]

I may have moaned about the introduction of a Turkish GP back whenever it was, on the grounds that Turkey had no real motor racing culture.  Now it seems that there was, even if it had perhaps died out more recently.The fact that the then President himself competed in a hill-climb ("Mustafa Kemal ATATÜRK participated in the climbing race held on the İstinye - Maslak road in 1931") suggests that it was quite high profile at the time.

Another notable contemporaneous supporter of motor sport as part of a national modernisation programme was President Getúlio Vargas in Brazil. He apparently encouraged it as a way of bringing the whole country together as it was less tribal than football and wanted to demonstrate that Brazil was a player on the world stage by bringing European drivers over to race. Not entirely successful, although of course Hans Stuck was a regular visitor and Carlo Pintacuda became something of a hero there too - he even had a racehorse named after him!

[Darren Galpin]

https://tr.wikipedia...e_Cahid_Morkaya

 

Sâmiye Cahid Morkaya (1897 Silivrikapı, Istanbul - 2 June 1972) Turkey's first female auto racer and champion, a kemenche teacher. Samiye Cahid Morkaya is the youngest daughter of İbrahim Şuaddedin Efendi, the last sheikh of the Emirler Lodge. He completed his primary education at Yedikule German School. First showing an interest in music, Morkaya took kemençe lessons from Tamburi Cemil Bey for eight years. She won an exam in Darülelhan, which was considered the conservatory of those years, in 1922 and then became a kemençe teacher. In the following periods, she got a driver's license from the Pangaltı American Garage and became the first female driver with a license. Samiye Morkaya's first car was bought by Burhan Cahit Morkaya, one of the novelists of the period and also his wife. Samiye Cahid Morkaya in the photo of the Vakit newspaper auto racing news dated June 18, 1932. In those years, instead of the races that measure the endurance level of the cars, races with different formats were organized by the Turing Club. Samiye Cahid Morkaya participated in the new format races organized by Turing Club. She was the only female driver to participate in these races in the 1930s. Morkaya, who ranked in the races in 1930 and 1931, won his first championship in 1932; She won the rally organized on the 9.5 kilometer track between İstinye-Zincirlikuyu. She also became the first female champion auto racer with this title. The men who participated in the competition objected to Morkaya's first championship on the grounds that "there is no article in the competition rules stipulating that women can also participate in the race". At the court hearing as a result of the objections, the Sultanahmet Magistrates' Court rejected the objections, stating that the race champion was Morkaya. Morkaya, who also won the rally held in 1933, had an accident with his Ford brand car in the rally in 1934 and was injured.