Aliyyah Koloc doing triple duty in W2RC, Middle East Baja, 24H Series

Aliyyah Koloc might only be nineteen but she already has a very diverse racing portfolio that spans multiple disciplines and surfaces. This will continue in 2024 when she pursues the World Rally-Raid Championship and FIA Middle East Baja Cup in the off-road realm as well as the 24H Series on pavement.

“It’s not easy to alternate between off-road rallying and circuits, but I am getting used to it,” Koloc commented. “It becomes easier each time to quickly switch and adapt to a very different car that I’m about to race in. It is all a matter of not transferring bad habits from the terrain to the circuits and vice versa.”

Her calendar began with the W2RC’s Dakar Rally in January, where she ran her maiden Dakar in the top-level Ultimate class after making her début in 2023 in a side-by-side. Racing a Red-Lined REVO T1+, she suffered a front axle failure in Stage #2 that dropped her down the order early on, but managed to finish twenty-fifth in Ultimate with a best stage outing of twenty-fourth in Stage #5.

This weekend, a month after the Dakar, Koloc entered the Middle East Baja Cup’s season-opening Saudi Baja and placed fifth in Ultimate. She will be going for her second championship in the four-race series after winning in 2022.

In two weeks, she returns to the W2RC for the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge. She scored a class podium at the 2023 edition when she finished third in T3 (now Challenger). The W2RC consists of five rounds total.

The 24H Series season opener and Koloc’s first pavement race of the year will take place on 23/24 March at the 12 Hours of Mugello, once again sharing a Mercedes GT4 with Adam Lacko and David Vršecký. The trio finished runner-up in the GT4 championship last year with a class win at the 12 Hours of Spa.

In total, she will have run over eleven thousand kilometres in 2024.

“The more racing kilometres she gets under her belt, the better she will get to grips with the car, which should improve her results,” said her father Martin Koloc, whose Buggyra ZM Racing team is fielding Koloc’s vehicles in all three series. “Starting in the Middle East championship is an important preparation for the next Dakar, as this is the kind of terrain the event is run on. And then there are the circuits where Aliyyah has also already established herself as a very good racer. She has an extremely busy season ahead of her, but just participating in the races will bring further career growth.”

Koloc boasts a résumé that also includes the FIA European Truck Racing Championship and the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series.

Koloc’s 2024 schedule