Dubai-born teenager Aliyyah Koloc has won her class at the tightly-fought Mugello 12 Hours race in Italy: the first round of the decade-old 24H Series, which pushes the edge of endurance racing at the world’s most challenging tracks. The Mugello 12 Hours is slightly different from other endurance races, as it’s effectively split into two six-hour races, with the first part starting on Saturday, and the second part on Sunday.
Driving together with experienced team mates Adam Lacko and David Vršecký, Aliyyah won the GT4 class for Buggyra ZM Racing, at the wheel of the team’s Mercedes AMG-GT4. The field included some of the world’s top drivers – such as nine-time World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb and two-time Le Mans winner Romain Dumas – with the number 416 Buggyra car recording 22nd place overall, one lap ahead of the second-placed car in GT4.
Not only that but Aliyyah also set the fastest lap in the GT4 category on lap 38 at an average speed of 158.60 kph, underlining her mastery of the category last weekend.
The Mugello circuit in Tuscany is fast and varied, having formed part of the 24H Series since 2014, and it’s described as almost like a mini-Nürburgring Nordschleife by some drivers. There’s plenty of elevation with a quite narrow racing line and some bumps, giving the layout an old-school feel: no big surprise as the circuit was inaugurated in its current form back in 1974, but with its roots going all the way back to a 1914 road course.
The 15 corners are mainly medium to high speed, with no really tight chicanes or big braking zones throughout the 5.2-kilometer lap, making it a real challenge for every driver. And Aliyyah loved all 12 hours of it, despite variable and tricky conditions that included periods of heavy rain – which the teenager excelled in, despite her relative lack of wet-weather experience on only her second visit to Mugello.
