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The Koloc family; The most successful family in Truck Racing history
The most successful family in truck racing history? From now on, that would be probably the Koloc family. While the father Martin won 2 European Truck Racing championships, his still a 15-year-old daughter Aliyyah has just surpassed two world records in top speed on 500 metres with a standing and a rolling start.
It was even a bit symbolic event, as Aliyyah was attacking a record held by a Swedish driver Boije Ovebrink, who back in 1994 won the European championship title by a single point against Martin Koloc. “To be honest, I didn’t even think about Boije when we decided to do that. But I’m even happier now knowing, that we’ve done something that nobody else could in the past,” said Martin Koloc.
The event took place at the airport at Panenský Týnec, very early in the morning. “We did a lot of practice starts and we tested the acceleration. Still, there hasn’t been any situation like this before, with a 15-year-old girl driving almost a 5-tonne truck with 1,900 bhp. I was the European champion, I had dozens of races. But this, today, that’s something different,” said David Vršecký, who also broke world records with a standing and a rolling start back in 2008 at exactly the same place.
At 11.00 am, David drove the 12-litre Buggyra to warm the tyres, followed by a short break and a briefing. “Vršecký told me to stay calm, that the tyres can sustain something. The only real issue was the weather because a standing start in the wet wouldn’t be any good,” said Aliyyah just before her first run, in which she did 500 metres with a standing start in 15 seconds. “Once I got into the truck and started the engine, any nervousness was gone,” she said after the run.
Just a few minutes later, she tried another run. This time, it was 13.2 seconds, equalling a current world record. “Aliyyah doesn’t have an international license. So currently, it’s an official national record that nobody in the world has managed to do. She had an average speed of 136 kph, which is 6 kph faster than Boije did. There’s not much to add. I don’t think I’ve ever got a better gift for my name day,” said team manager Jan Kalivoda.
But that was only half of the story, with a 500m with a rolling start still ahead. And it was just starting to rain. “My dad and David told me, that it’s up to me. I didn’t even think about not doing it. But right at the start, the truck got a bit twitchy, but I still wanted to do it. In comparison to my previous runs, it felt a bit long,” said Aliyyah about her 7.3-second attempt, that matched the average speed of 246.5 kph, while hitting the maximum speed of 284.13 kph. “All that despite a strong headwind and a wet track. We worked a lot on making this record possible. Together with the Techsoft company, we have optimized our aerodynamics and also analysed our data from the previous record runs. Today was a big success. Aliyyah wanted to beat the 300 kph milestone, but the airport here at Panenský Týnec is too short for such run. But after today, I believe that it’s possible for us to do the magical 300 kph,“ said David Vršecký.
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