Jufalli, who spent her first seasons racing in British junior single cars, founded Theeba Motorsport to attack this year’s GT Open International series with the Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, which is in conjunction with Adam Christadoulou.
Theeba, which is competing under license from Saudi Arabia, will debut this weekend at Ricardo’s Field in the second round of this year’s GT Open.
The team did not work in the first round in Estaril earlier this month, so Jufalli and Christadoulo raced at Merc, which was run by SPS Automotive under the Theeba flag.
The 30-year-old Jufai explained that she is now focused on racing sports cars and realizing her dreams in Le Mans after racing in the British F4 in 2019-20 and then in the GB3 Championship (formerly the BRDC Formula 3) in 2021.
“I came to motorsport a little later in life, so I decided that in order to speed up my training, single games would be the best way,” Juffley told Motorsport.com.
“But endurance racing has always been a goal, and after last year I felt I had made some progress and that single cars had served their purpose.
“In the future, Le Mans is a goal.”
Rome Jufalli, Theeba Motorsport
Photo: Theeba Motorsport
Jufalli decided to form the Theeba team after debuting in a sports car in January in Dubai 24 hours aboard the Merc, which runs the SPS.
“It really pushed me and encouraged me to create a team,” she explained.
Theeba’s brief rearing, operating in Banbury near Silverstone, meant the team was unprepared for Estaril, where Jufalli and Chistadulu won each of the two races.
Giuffali has not set a deadline for graduating from Le Mans with Teeba.
“Five years is true, but I can’t give you the exact time there,” she said. “Depending on how the team develops, it could be three years.”
She revealed that the team is already looking to take part in some endurance races such as Spa 24 Hours and Dubai twice around the clock.
Jufalli explained that she was also motivated to create a team to “improve Saudi Arabia’s representation and access to motorsport.”
“The reason why I created the team is that people, particularly Saudis, approached me and asked how I could get into motorsport, what do you advise?” she said.
“I always felt I didn’t have the right answer and I couldn’t give them the right instructions: this team started with that and because I want to give something away.
“The whole idea of the team is to involve the Saudis in travel and give them a platform to study and understand the sport.”
Jufalli expressed hope that one day the team will be largely made up of Saudi nationals.
Theeba plans to set up a second base in the Middle East to implement a regional program in addition to one in the European arena.
“In the future, we want to combine programs to have a Middle Eastern program, as well as international or European,” she said.
“We want to offer the Saudis opportunities closer to home.”
Jufalli explained that at the moment Tebu is mostly funded by “family and friends”, but she is turning to sponsors in the Middle East to help grow the team.
The team is named after the teenage nickname Jufali, which roughly translates as wolf.
Jufali was able to start the race after in 2017 a royal decree of the ruling family of Saudi Arabia allowed women to drive a car.
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