Subaru do Motorsport team driver Molly Taylor became the first female and youngest winner of the Motorsport Australia Rally Championship in 2016.
Growing up in a motorsport family, an interest in rallying was inevitable, with Molly’s mother Coral a four-time Australian Rally Champion co-driver. However, it wasn’t until a later age, working at her father Mark rally school in the holidays that Molly tried driving a rally car herself.
She won the F16 class in the Australian Rally Championship in 2006, backing the victory up again in 2007.
Following that, Molly moved overseas at age 20 with very little money or resources to follow her dream to become a professional rally driver.
Supported by the Australian Motor Sport Foundation’s International Rising Star program, she won three of the six events she contested in the 2009 Suzuki Swift Sport Cup, also becoming the British Ladies rally champion in the process. She took that title again in 2010 along with finished 3rd in the Citroen Racing Trophy.
In 2011 she was selected as one of six drivers globally to be part of the Pirelli Star Driver Program, giving her a scholarship to compete in the World Rally Championship Academy, where she took out her maiden stage win in the category.
In 2013 Molly competed in the European Rally Championship, where she won the European Ladies Championship and her results also elevated her to World Rally Rankings Number 1 International Female Rally Driver. In 2014 Molly took on four rounds of the Junior World Rally Championship. She also became the first female to achieve a podium position in the Junior WRC’s history, finishing third in the prestigious Rally Finland.
In 2015 Molly became the first female to win a round of the Australian Rally Championship and finished second overall in the series. In 2016 she went one better, winning the Championship as part of the Subaru do Motorsport team. Molly’s achievements that year also included winning one of the most prestigious awards in Australian motorsport, the Peter Brock Medal, named in honour of the late touring car legend.
"It's both an honour and very exciting to be part of Dare to be Different. There's a whole world of opportunities in motorsport, and how far you take it ultimately comes down to your desire and work ethic, not gender. To be able to help other girls experience the thrill of the sport and share that same passion is something pretty special."
Official website: www.mollytaylor.com.au