Molly Taylor wins IRDC Personal Improvement Award

After the gruelling six round Dulux Trade MSA British Rally Championship, the delighted and worthy winner of the International Rally Driver’s Club Performance Improvement Award is Molly Taylor, a twenty two year old sales assistant from New South Wales Australia.

Now living in Cumbria, Taylor is in her sixth year of top flight rallying and started commuting from her native Australia in 2008 to compete in some BRC rounds and did this again last year, becoming the 2009 British Ladies Rally Champion, a feat she has repeated this year.

For the 2010 season Molly has been driving a Citroen C2 in the Citroën Racing Trophy, ably co-driven by last year’s champion co-driver Phil Clarke.

The IRDC award scheme was closely contested right up to the final round, with last year’s winner Jonny Greer leading from round one, up to the final rally when Molly did enough to secure the 2010 trophy. In doing so she beat a strong attack from the Scandinavians with Mikko Pajunen, Jarkko Nikara and Matti Rantanen all being in contention and Welsh junior star Elfyn Evans also looking as if he could have been a likely winner, proving the IRDC scheme is a truly international competition.

In the overall 2010 BRC standings, Molly Taylor finished a creditable 20th overall and fourth in the Junior category. In the IRDC standings, Greer finished in sixth place and IRDC vice president Gwyndaf Evans’ strong fourth helped secure the BRC Teams prize for JRM.

The Diesel Cup was won by IRDC secretary Tony Graham and his brother Steve in their Vauxhall Astra and they also took a class win in R3.

The IRDC trophy and a cheque for £500 will be presented to Molly Taylor at the BRC awards night on 30th October, at which Molly and a guest will be hosted at the Club’s table. The IRDC plans to operate the successful motivational scheme for young drivers again in conjunction with next year’s Dulux Trade MSA British Rally Championship.

IRDC Performance Improvement Scheme 2010 – Final Positions

1          Molly Taylor
2          Mikko Pajunen
3          Jarkko Nikara
4          Gwyndaf Evans
5          Elfyn Evans
6          Jonny Greer
7          Robert Barrable
8          Daniel Sigurðarson
9=        Matti Rantanen
9=        Joseph McGonigle

Details of the Scheme

The main objectives of the scheme are aimed at finding the best improvement in driver performance, on gravel and asphalt, raising the profile of competitors in the BRC and garnering much needed press coverage for the drivers, Dulux Trade MSA Rally Championship and International Rally Driver’s Club.

During 2010, the innovative scheme has included all registered competitors in the British Rally Championship, meaning that there has been no requirement for competitors to complete another registration form instead, once registered for the BRC competitors have automatically been included in the IRDC performance award scheme.

Press release courtesy of IRDC

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