Hi everyone,
Two weeks ago was the second round of our European Rally Championship program with United Business at the Tour de Corse in Corsica. It is an incredible rally, long technical stages on abrasive tarmac with corner after corner and very little straights.
The stages wind through the mountains on the island with lots of steep uphill, downhill and changeable weather conditions. After a disappointing start to our season at the Azores we were very focused on making sure we drove sensibly and came away with points for the Championship.
Friday was very tricky, with heavy rain overnight. The stages were reported to still have a lot of standing water on them so we opted for the safe option of intermediate/wet tyres. Unfortunately the road dried out a lot quicker than we were expecting - driving almost 30km stages on mostly dry tarmac with wet tyres was a challenge! The weather conditions remained mixed so the day was a little up and down, sometimes were on the right tyre choice, other times we got it wrong and dropped some time. Overall we were 5th 2WD at the end of the day so we were satisfied with that position, having taken no risks and sticking to our game plan.
Saturday morning started very well and we really enjoyed the stages. We got into a good rhythm and found more confidence in the car. It showed in our pace and we took our first stage win in the ERC on tarmac! We were very very excited to achieve this. We know we have a lot of improvement still to go on tarmac events and were not expecting to reach this pace so soon. The rest of the day continued very well and we managed to move into 2nd 2WD overall. This gives us a great points haul for the Championship and also maximum points for the Ladies Trophy. More importantly it has given us a real confidence boost which we can now take into the next round in Belgium in June.
As soon as Corsica had finished, Seb and I hopped on a plane headed for Australia. We had recently been given the opportunity with the Ford Innate Motorsport Team to compete in the fourth round of the Australian Rally Championship, Scouts Rally SA. It was great to get back home and back on the fast Aussie roads.
The rally was the complete opposite of Corsica, lots of long straights, different types of gravel and very very fast. It also gave us the chance to spend some time back in the Fiesta R2 (which I drove in 2011) and work with the Innate team ahead of WRC Rally Australia, which we will compete in with the same team in September.
We had some mechanical dramas on Saturday with a gear selection issue and a misfire but the team did a fantastic job to keep the car going. We were the quickest 1600 car in both heats and finished the event 7th overall and 1st in the 1600 classification. We really enjoyed the rally and it was extremely valuable as a 'shakedown' to iron out everything ahead of Rally Australia.
I am now back at home for two weeks before heading back to Europe. I was also able to make it to the AMSF Drive Day at Eastern Creek yesterday. Myself and Neal Bates worked on the skid pan doing constant radius drifts in the Lexus ISF. It was an absolute blast!! It was also great to be able to catch up with some of you and be involved with the AMSF's activities back here in Australia.
Thank you again for all your kind messages and I look forward to writing more positive reports like this one soon!
Kind Regards,
Molly Taylor
SUBSCRIBE BELOW TO READ THE FULL STORY
