Laurence J. Peter noted that employees tend to be promoted to their level of incompetence and stay there. No higher-up wants to admit they made a mistake and demote someone they promoted. So over time, the principle suggests, in any given hierarchy, most positions get filled by incompetents.
Racing works this way, too. Teams, mechanics, engineers and particularly riders get noticed by winning in the lower ranks and then move into more and more challenging environments. It is easiest to see in rider careers; when the rider stops winning, there are no more promotions. Riders must exhibit not just competence, but excellence, by dominating in the lower divisions before they get the call-up for a front-line shot at the big leagues.
Jorge Lorenzo crushed the 250cc GP field in 2006 and 2007, winning 17 races in two years and taking the title easily both years; Yamaha had his name on a contract to ride its factory MotoGP bike before his second year was even well and truly started. Valentino Rossi won 11 125cc GP races in 1997, and that got him a 250cc GP ride. He won nine 250cc GP races in 1999, and that got him a factory 500cc Honda ride - and the wrenching skills of Jerry Burgess to help out.
It's interesting to look at Casey Stoner's career, because he didn't dominate the lower classes in the same way, and he wasn't invited to ride the front-line weaponry. Stoner kicked his way into racing immortality through the back door, taking the less-fancied Ducati MotoGP ride and riding that evil, scorching missile straight to his first World Championship.
What Marc Marquez did to the lower classes doesn't even need to be mentioned, to avoid embarrassing his competitors - and you have to use the loosest definition of competitor in that context.
Those four riders account for 15 of the last 16 500cc/MotoGP World Champions. The only interloper was one Nicky Hayden, who got his ride in MotoGP by, frankly, making the rest of the AMA Superbike paddock look slow.
So what of the rest? What are they to do? Especially those who show that they have the talent, the skills and the bravery, to ride at the very front in the lower ranks?
Ego and finances sometimes dictate that a racer chooses to ride mid-pack in a higher division rather than to race for the wins in the lower classes. Personal sponsors pay more for exposure in the higher ranks, and it can be easier to get those sponsors to begin with. And sometimes that will pay more than a salary in a lower division, even the salary of a race- and title-winner. So you'll see riders sign on with satellite teams in, say, World Superbike, rather than race for wins in World Supersport.
Kenan Sofuoglu seems to be one of those racers who had the choice. His career is fascinating. In his rookie World Supersport season in 2006, he won two races, then crushed the competition in 2007 for his first World Championship. The next year, he moved up to World Superbike on a satellite-equivalent team (he was on the third Ten Kate bike on what the squad called a junior team) and wasn't successful. He moved back down to his level of competence, struggled the next season, then came back in 2010 and won his second World Championship.
For 2011, he moved to Moto2. One podium in 14 starts was not the level of success he sought. The next year, he moved back to World Supersport, his level of competence, this time with Kawasaki, and won his third World Championship.
The next season was pivotal. Sofuoglu had the choice to move back to Superbike with a team that does not have full factory support. Had Sofuoglu gone, he would have been in the same place that he had been in 2008. Sofuoglu chose instead to stay in World Supersport. He's since gotten two more World titles. He now has more Supersport World Championships than any other racer.
He is revered as a sports figure in his home country of Turkey; when his ailing son was dying, the president of the country publicly announced that all of the country's resources would be at the disposal of Sofuoglu's family so Kenan could go race. And Sofuoglu mentors and manages young Turkish riders, one of whom, Toprak Razgatlioglu, won the 2015 European Superstock 600 Championship.
It's easy to say from the sidelines that every racer should always race in the highest possible class. But by functioning at his level of competence, Sofuoglu has not only made himself a legend, but has increased the visibility of the sport and given younger riders chances they might not have otherwise had.
Practicing the Kenan Principle, in other words, has worked out not just for Sofuoglu, but for the sport. Not a bad principle by which to live.
