MARLBOROUGH College student Alessandro Latif contests the legendary 12 Hours of Sebring in Florida on Saturday – one of the oldest surviving motor races in North America.

Latif, 18 next month, drives a 180mph Audi sportscar aiming to emulate Stirling Moss who won the corresponding race in 1954.

Alessandro is in his final year studying A-Levels in Maths, Further Maths and Physics and is currently applying to take a degree in engineering to assist him in his quest for motor racing stardom.

The historic Sebring race marks Latif’s second event in Florida having finished an impressive fifth in the GTD class on his Daytona debut in January.

“I achieved a top-five result in the Rolex 24 at Daytona so my objective must be a top-three podium finish at Sebring,” said Alessandro, who has backing from French luxury shoemaker Corthay.

London-born Latif, who has Indian and Pakistani lineage from his father and an Italian mother, began his motorsports career in karting in 2008 and now races an Audi R8 LMS sportscar for one of the German car manufacturer’s official 'customer racing' teams.

“My ultimate goal is to become a ‘factory’ Audi driver. I must now gain experience in the higher echelons of endurance racing and in doing so, hopefully strengthen my link with Audi for the future.”