Molly and new co-driver – experienced WRC co-pilot, Seb Marshall – are now in Estonia, preparing for reconnaissance (Thursday and Friday) before the event kicks off in earnest late Friday.
Competitors will tackle 160km of competitive stages on Friday and Saturday and Molly is not the only driver using it as a shakedown for Neste Oil Rally Finland, the WRC round being run at the end of this month.
“I’m so excited about getting out on some proper forest stages with Seb. From the footage I have seen, the roads look amazing, and apparently they are very similar to the roads we will be using in Finland.
“It’s just ideal to have this opportunity so close to Finland after such a big gap since our last WRC Academy outing in Sardinia in May.”
Several of Molly’s rival WRC Academy competitors will be out in the forests this weekend as well as a number of the new generation World Rally Cars.
Mads Ostberg will be driving the new Ford Fiesta WRC while Kris Meeke will have the Mini John Cooper Works WRC in action, up against Markko Martin in an old formula Focus WRC.
The event, which is based at Martin’s home town of Tartu, has attracted many competitors who will be going on to the WRC round in Finland, as the Estonian rally is an authorised chance to set up their championship cars.
Molly and Seb will be driving the Ford Fiesta R2 that Molly has been using for all non-WRC rounds this year. It’s an identical car to the one she and all the WRC Academy drivers use in the Academy cup events.
Finland is the third of six rounds the young drivers are contesting as part of a one-make, development series aimed at bringing the best young rally talent in the world to elite levels. Molly is one of six of the drivers on a fully funded scholarship for the year, covering all her WRC expenses.
She comes into the Estonian rally, and the round in Finland, fresh from a prestigious ‘Driver of the Day’ award at the famous Goodwood Festival of Speed, where she did demonstration laps and took VIPs for rides.
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