‘Aliyyah doesn’t know racing in pack and she’s not deformed by small cars’ says Vršecký
Despite there are still two and a half months before the race at Most at the end of summer, the 16-year-old Aliyyah Koloc is working hard on her style as a truck racing driver. Her teacher? Nobody else than David Vršecký himself. The two-time European championship and the fastest truck racing driver in the history has something in common with Aliyyah – they both had zero racing experience coming into the truck racing scene.
“However, Aliyyah is in a much better position than me. I used to race on a jet ski before I got to meet Martin Koloc and I had my first ever 8 laps. Then they told me that I should pack, and I’ll be racing in Dijon,” remembered Vršecký his first taste of the European Truck Racing championship from 1998, when he was just a 22-year-old.
According to him, having no previous racing experience could be both – an advantage but also a disadvantage for Aliyyah. “It’s going to take her a while to get into it, not knowing how to race in a pack and all the contacts that are part of the truck racing scene. On the other hand, she is not used to karts and small karts. That’s something I saw with Jiří Forman or Uwe Nittel. Brilliant drivers, but it took them a full season before they got used to the different style needed to drive a several-tonne racing truck.”
But apart from testing cars with David, Aliyyah also had her first experience with a single-seater. “Martin wanted her to try it. There’s no reason why not to. And she is going to need to do a couple of races in small cars anyway, to get an international license. There’s something on the horizon for her in Croatia and Slovakia. Anyway, I’m closely watching her style as our priority is still truck racing.”
