Despite being lauded as the first female to win a Heat of the Australian Rally Championship, Molly Taylor says the whole ‘female in a male dominated sport’ is something she doesn’t spend anytime considering and she just wants to get on with the job at hand – winning rallies.
“It’s incredibly important to me to earn respect for the job you are doing, regardless of whether you are male or female.” said Molly after the recent Quit Forest Rally, where she claimed her first ever Heat win.
In a sport that’s largely dominated by male drivers Molly says she’s considered herself ‘just another one of the guys’, and she believes that once the helmet and gloves are on the sex, age, religion or status of the driver becomes completely irrelevant.
“I’ve never been treated any differently to anyone else in rallying because I’m a female. We’re all out there trying to win, we’re all out there driving the exact same roads, and as soon as you let something else influence you then you’re not doing the best you can,” she explained.
“Being a girl doesn’t change anything for me. I’d still be approaching my rallying exactly the same way if I was racing another girl as I do racing against all the guys. We all want to win, we don’t really care that much who is in the car ahead or behind us.”
Having claimed her debut Heat win on the opening day of the Quit Forest Rally in Western Australia, Molly backed it up with third in Heat Two to finish second outright for the weekend.
“I was saying coming into WA that the car had already proven itself and now it was up to me to prove myself. I had no excuses, I needed to do my bit and thankfully we were able to do that with a podium finish and a Heat win.”
On roads that have caught out even the most seasoned campaigner, including both Eli and Simon Evans on the very first forestry stage of the weekend, Molly said she was nervous about tackling the ball-bearing gravel tracks after so many years away competing in Europe.
“I think I was most apprehensive about my lack of experience at the event. There are drivers who have done that event five, six, seven years in a row, while for me it was my first time back at the event for six years,” she commented.
“My experiences competing in Europe, of visiting very different events for the first time, helped so much. We wrote a really good set of pace notes in WA, and having that confidence in my notes was one of the keys to success.”
“You still learn a lot as a driver, be it here in Australia or competing overseas. I think you learn the most when you step outside your comfort zone, every time you go to a new event or you’re on the other side of the World on your own and trying to make everything happen from that perspective makes you mentally tough,” Molly added.
“So much of this sport is about what’s going on inside your head rather than just driving fast, and for me driving overseas that’s a really important lesson I learnt. With all the trials and tribulations of rallying, and having the ability to stay calm, that’s so important.”
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