“Really cool to have the whole family involved”

The Koloc legacy lives on. It actually opens up a new chapter this January in the Saudi desert as the twin sisters Aliyyah and Yasmeen gear up for their first participation in the Dakar at 18 years old, each one with her own vehicle. Their father Martin was a truck driver himself in the 1990s before he became the team principal of Buggyra Racing. Under his leadership, the team has taken over the desert, with innovations culminating in Josef Machacek’s victory in the T3 light prototype category in 2021. Aliyyah has seen her father’s success in the world of motorsport but her first inspiration was tennis. She started at 4 years old, with the ambition to become a professional player, until an injury set her on a different path. After she attended winter tests in the beginning of 2019, she’s picked up racing, in all types of vehicles (trucks, karts, Formula 4, Nascar…). In 2022, she showed her budding talent claiming the FIA Middle East Cup for Cross-Country Bajas with her Buggyra Can-Am DV 21. She’s ready to take on the biggest challenge of her young life.

A.K.: "I was able to attend the Dakar since 2020 and it has been an amazing experience. I saw the start, the bivouac, I saw the drivers come back so late at night sometimes, before going again very early the next morning. It was impressive seeing how hard it can be for the drivers and the mechanics. It actually made me more excited to do it. I always looked at this event as the hardest one in the world so being able to do it myself is very exciting and surreal.
It’s really cool to have the whole family involved. To be able to do something you love with the people you love is always the best feeling and you just have the best time. He gives me advice and I have a really nice group of people around me to teach me all the tips and tricks. He’s happy to see me and my sister do this but he’s also very stressed. Dakar will be very interesting. In small rallyes, there were days he was getting really stressed so we’re gonna have to calm him down in Dakar!”