When Scouts Rally SA kicks off this Friday, Eli Evans will be trying to claim his third Australian Rally Championship, while Molly Taylor will be doing everything in her power to stop that from happening and instead hold the trophy aloft herself come Sunday afternoon.
Taylor starts the final round of the 2015 East Coast Bullbars Australian Rally Championship just 31 points adrift of Evans, and with 150 points on offer, there is still plenty to play for.
“Anything is definitely possible,” stressed Taylor ahead of the title fight. “The scenarios are pretty interesting. I need to win for sure, but then we need Eli to finish further back because if he is second behind us that’ll still be enough for him to win the Championship.”
Taylor said the decision by Adrian Coppin to switch to the 4WD series, and for Simon Evans to sit the event out after blowing another engine in his Honda Jazz at Rally Australia, will have a major impact on deciding the title.
“It’ll be a little bit more difficult without Adrian and Simon because there are less drivers who can sandwich between Eli and I in the points,” she explained.
“The nature of rallying though is that all I can do is drive the best that I possibly can, and then see where the cards fall with Eli. On some of the rallies earlier in the year that definitely worked in our favour, and the last couple of events it’s gone Eli’s way.”
Having clawed her way onto the final step of the podium at the recent Coates Hire Rally Australia, after struggling with a car that seemed to lack the consistency and pace she’d become used to, Taylor said she’d put those struggles aside to start Scouts Rally SA in the best possible frame of mind.
“Rally Oz was definitely a bit of a surprise. We’d had a good test beforehand and everything inside the car felt good but the times just weren’t there at all,” she said.
“It’s still a learning curve every event for me, and I could sit here trying to over-analyze everything, but I’ve written Coffs off as just not our event and now I’m looking forward to getting onto those fast roads in South Australia and going for it again!”
Taylor said that other than re-preparing her Renault Clio for the event there was no development work or updates planned, just flat out attack from the very first stage.
“We know it’s a great car. So much work was done on it to take Scott (Pedder) to the Championship last year. I just need to put the car to good use and give it the result we all deserve!” she exclaimed.
Scouts Rally SA starts this Friday afternoon with four stages, including the running of the 20.45 kilometre Crawford stage in full darkness, before two further full days of competition in the Adelaide Hills.
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