Australian rally driver Molly Taylor is heading back into World Rally Championship competition this weekend at Lotos Rally Poland (June 26-29).
The Polish event is round seven of the 13-round WRC series for 2014, but for Molly, 26, the rally will be her second event of the year. She will be driving a Citroën DS3 R3T.
The world’s number one female rally driver has signed with D-Max Racing to compete in six rounds of this year’s Junior category of the WRC, after winning the inaugural Ladies Trophy in last year’s European Rally Championship. The company, based near Varese in Northern Italy, manages motorsport programs across Europe for customers driving Citroën rally cars.
Molly’s first event for the year was Rally Portugal (April 3-6), which she contested with her mother, Coral, a four-time Australian Rally Champion co-driver. However, Coral will not be making the trip to Poland with her daughter.
“Aside from the fact she was competing in the International Rally of Queensland (June 20-22), mum also has some other work commitments this week which made it impossible for her to come to Poland.
“Instead, Seb Marshall, who has been such a support over the last few years, will re-join the team.
“On one hand, it’s a shame mum can’t be there because it was great to have her with me in Portugal. She did a fantastic job and we had a lot of fun, but I am also looking forward to getting back in the car with Seb. He is an absolute professional to work with and I am sure we will be back to where we left off.”
Molly admits the long gap between Portugal and Poland is not ideal but denies she is rusty. During her Australian break, she’s been working at a rally school and has done some track driver training days as well.
“We’re testing on Monday (June 23) and I can’t wait to get back in the car and focus on improving our set-up for this event. It’s a very high-speed rally so making sure the car feels good and inspires confidence to push is really important. Then it’s just a matter of getting into the event and seeing how we go.”
The Polish event is based in Mikolajki, three hours north of Warsaw, in the Masurian Lake District, but includes stages in both Poland and Lithuania. It’s a gravel event which includes a night stage, and four passes over a super special stage (two under flood lights) at Mikolajki Arena.
The event will be quite a challenge for all drivers as Poland has not been a round of the WRC since 2009. All the stages in Lithuania and two in Poland are new, and the roads are very fast.
After Poland, Molly’s 2014 program includes Neste Oil Rally Finland (July 31-August 3), ADAC Rallye Deutschland (August 22-24), Rallye de France-Alsace (October 3-5) and Wales Rally GB (November 14-16). She currently has no plans to compete in the local round of the WRC, Rally Australia, in September, due to budget constraints.
