Buggyra ZM Racing and Motors Formula Team announced today that they will join forces to promote equality, respect, and diversity with their Equality & Diversity Program in the team’s debut EuroNASCAR campaign this year.
NASCAR Whelen Euro Series debutant team Buggyra ZM Racing will join forces with French-Mauritian motorsport agency Motors Formula Team (MFT) to promote equality, respect, and diversity in motorsport this year.
The Equality & Diversity Program, which promotes the three key elements of Equality, Respect, and Diversity, was first announced on 14 February 2022 for Buggyra’s sportscar and Dakar program and today MFT announced that the program will be extended to include Buggyra’s EuroNASCAR program as well.
“Teaming up with Buggyra for the NASCAR program makes sense for MFT, as we used to follow NASCAR for a while now,” said Ludovic Pezé, director of Motors Formula Team. “Keep following the girls to promote the talents of diversity in another series, it will help to spread the word, evenmore when you see the involvement in the USA with 23XI and Bubba Wallace.”
Buggyra and MFT formed the Equality & Diversity Program as a response to an incident that Emirati twin sisters Aliyyah and Yasmeen Koloc experienced during the 2021 Dakar Rally. During that event, the Koloc sisters – who were 16 years old at the time and acted as a supporting crew for the Buggyra team – became the target of sexist and degrading remarks by a fellow competitor.
“Being at the receiving end of abuse from a motorsport competitor was a big shock to us,” recalls the Koloc sisters on the incident. “We wanted to set a sign and be heard, so we started to wear these caps to remind people about equality, respect, and diversity, not just in motorsports but everywhere. We will continue to do so until these words start becoming reality,”
The incident prompted Buggyra ZM Racing’s CEO – and Koloc sisters’ father – Martin Koloc to launch the Equality & Diversity Program with a goal to raise awareness about equality, respect, and diversity in motorsports and help young racers from unusual backgrounds to become successful in motorsports.
“Buggyra ZM is opening a new chapter in the motorsport world with this close cooperation with MFT,” said Martin Koloc on the Equality & Diversity Program’s formation. “#EQUALITY #RESPECT #DIVERSITY are qualities that are still not a given in today’s motorsport world. By supporting talented young drivers who will join our Academy program in Europe and the Middle East we want to instigate change.”
As part of the Equality & Diversity Program, Buggyra are planning to enter the 2023 edition of Dakar Rally with the Koloc sisters as well as the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans – when Le Mans switched from GTLM to GT3 in the GT category – with a driver line-up and team of mostly African descent.
The team also signed sim racing trailblazer and former Formula 3, GP3, and Super GT driver Jann Mardenborough to become part of the Equality & Diversity Program, with Mardenborough being set to enter in selected GT races alongside the Koloc sisters this year.
Interestingly, today’s announcement from MFT also mentioned that Mardenborough could make his EuroNASCAR debut at Brands Hatch with Buggyra next month.
“Jann Mardenborough could make his 1st apparition for the Brands Hatch meeting for his home race,” said Motors Formula Team in the announcement.
Outside of this small mention, no other news regarding the possible EuroNASCAR debut for Mardenborough has been announced and/or reported at the time this article was posted.
Disclaimer: Unless noted on the photo, all photos used in this article are courtesy of Buggyra ZM Racing.
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