Subaru’s Molly Taylor is the first female Australian Rally Champion!
The Australian Rally Championship has been won by a factory Subaru team with driver Molly Taylor.
SUBARU DOMIANTED the Australian rally scene from 1996 to 2005, taking ten titles, seven with Possum Bourne and three with Cody Crocker, followed by another title with Simon Evans in 2010 as a privateer entry.
In 2015 Subaru announced their intention to contest the 2016 series under the “Subaru do Motorsport banner” and they have a winner after five rounds with driver Molly Taylor and co-driver Bill Hayes in a WRX STi.
The final round in Coffs Harbour saw three drivers in with a chance at the title and after problems, but leader Mark Pedder was penalised a minute, leaving Harry Bates (son of four-time champ Neal Bates) in with a chance but he ran into problems with punctures. Molly prevailed to take the win, saying: “talk about taking it down to the wire! We knew we had to give it everything on those last two stages after a really consistent run all weekend and we pushed so hard.”
Molly’s mother, Coral Taylor, will no doubt be proud as she is a four-time champion…co-driving for Neal Bates!
Here’s some official highlights:
Congratulations to Molly. I did a one-day rally course a few years ago and a very young Molly Taylor was one of our two driving instructors. She is a very talented driver.