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Fast Australian Molly Taylor and Cumbrian
co-driver Jemma
Bellingham made it a second Swift Sport Cup win
in a row on the Carlisle-based Pirelli
International Rally at the weekend.
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Contact: E-Mail | www.mollytaylor.com.au
Direct short-cut to this
listing: http://bit.ly/srb0IP
Bio
Sydney,
Australia
Name: Molly
Taylor
Age: 23
2011 WRC Academy Pirelli
Star Driver
First woman name to be
part of the Pirelli Driver Academy.
Molly was born and bred in
Sydney, and lived there most of her life, aside
from four years at New England Girls’ Boarding
School in northern NSW. This was where she focused
on her equestrian interest, competing in national
level eventing.
An interest in rallying
was inevitable, given mum Coral’s involvement
as four-time Australian Rally Champion co-driver to
Neal Bates in the factory Toyota team. However, it
wasn’t until she worked at her father
Mark’s rally school in the holidays that Molly
tried driving a rally car.
While still at school, a
friend offered her a car to compete in some local
motorkhanas. She finished ninth outright and first
in class in her first event. The bug had bitten, so
Molly decided to move home to Sydney to finish
school and get seriously into
motorsport.
As soon as she gained her
rally licence she started competing in a Holden
Gemini. In 2006 she was selected in the
Women’s Driver Development Program run by the
Confederation of Australian Motorsport (CAMS) and
noted as a standout performer. She also made the
difficult decision to sell her beloved horse,
Banjo, to pay for a more powerful car to help
advance her career.
Her first outing in the
new car was the Rallye Des Femmes in Canberra,
which she won by five full minutes. She went on to
take the 2WD and 2-Litre titles in the 2006 NSW
Rally Championship and was recognised as the NSW
Young Achiever of the Year by CAMS, an award that
covers all forms of motorsport.
In 2007, Molly made her
debut in the Australian Rally Championship and won
the F16 class. She repeated the feat the following
year, as well as flying to the UK to contest a
round of the British Rally Championship.
In 2009 Molly moved to the
UK (she has dual citizenship) to compete in the
Suzuki Swift Sport Cup, a one-make sub-series of
the British Rally Championship.
She won three of the six
events and looked certain to take the title in the
last round when a mechanical problem ended her
rally, and her title chances. She was consoled by
becoming the British Ladies Rally
Champion.
Last year she again
contested the British series, this time in a
Citroën C2 as part of the Citroën Racing
Trophy, finishing third outright after three
podiums across the season. She also began working
at M-Sport with the customer sales team for the
Ford Fiesta S2000, where she is still
employed.
In October last year, with
mum Coral in the co-driver’s seat, Molly
competed in the Pirelli Star Driver Shootout
against 15 other young rally drivers from around
the world. She won one of six fully funded
scholarships to contest the 2011 World Rally
Championship as part of the FIA WRC Academy
Cup.
It’s a specially
tailored training program and one-make rally
sub-series, which replaces the former Junior World
Rally Championship format, and is aimed at
developing young drivers and providing them with a
passage through to the elite levels of the sport.
All the drivers compete in equal Ford Fiesta R2s
prepared by M-Sport, the team behind the BP Ford
Abu Dhabi World Rally Team.
The WRC events which Molly
will compete in are: Rally de Portugal (March),
Rally d'Italia Sardegna (May), Rally Finland
(July), Rally Deutschland (August), Rallye de
France (September) and Wales Rally GB
(November).
The FIA WRC Academy Cup
rounds take place over two full days of the
nominated WRC events. There will be training and
tuition in the classroom and on the stages, as well
as lectures, mentors, grades, homework – and
tests! The tuition covers driving and co-driving
performance as well as related topics including
technical, health, lifestyle and media skills.
Results
2010: British Ladies Rally Champion, 3rd Citroen
Racing Trophy (BRC), IRDC Most Improved Award
2009: British Ladies Rally Champion, Greenlight TV
Star Performer Award
2008: F16 Champion, Australian Rally
Championship
2007: F16 Champion, Australian Rally
Championship
2006: 2WD Champion, NSW Rally Championship
2006: 2 Litre Champion, NSW Rally Championship
News
Molly Taylor and Jemma
Bellingham take podium at Suzuki Swift Sport Cup
4/20/09
Fast female Molly Taylor made it a second Swift
Sport Cup win in a row on the Carlisle-based
Pirelli International Rally at the weekend.
Australian Molly and Cumbrian co-driver Jemma
Bellingham battled stages in the notorious
‘Killer Kielder’ and Kershope Forests in
their Monster Sport Europe and Motorsport Insurance
Services backed Suzuki Swift Sport.
The girls left the start at Carlisle Racecourse
on Friday evening for two stages in Kershope
Forest. Running later down the field, meant that
they would be completing the stages just as it was
getting dark.
They didn’t quite get off to the start
they’d hoped for; the rough nature of the
stages caused them to drop some time. They
continued through SS2, determined to get through
the tricky stages and back into service. At the end
of Leg 1, the girls were lying third in the Swift
Sport Cup, twenty seconds behind leader, Luke
Pinder.
Leg 2 began early on Saturday morning with four
stages in the Kielder Forest Complex. SS5, the
girls managed to claw back some time from fellow
Suzuki competitor, Richard Sykes, getting into
second place. SS6 the girls took the lead of the
Swift Sport Cup after Luke Pinder crashed out of
the rally.
In service Molly commented “We were all
pushing really hard and I was trying not to take
too many risks as I knew we still had lots of stage
miles still to go. It was a real shame to see Luke
off the road, but I had to keep focused. With the
fast tricky stages I had to keep concentrating on
the notes and keeping the car neat to avoid the
huge ditches!”
Their lead was short lived when Richard Sykes
took 2.9 seconds back from them. The girls were
then affected by the hold-up when Guy Wilks’
car caught fire. They assumed the rally was over
and had settled for 2nd place in the British Rally
Championship’s Swift Sport Cup, when the
organisers announced they would still run the two
final stages of the day in Kershope, so the title
was still to be fought.
Determined to have a good battle with Richard
Sykes for the win, the girls set out on SS11 with
the plan to push as hard as they could without
taking any major risks, however they were given the
lead by default as Sykes suffered mechanical
problems mid-way through the stage.
“We were genuinely disappointed to see
Richard stopped in stage as I was looking forward
to comparing our times with him at the
finish.” said Molly, “The rally has been
a real rollercoaster for us this weekend. We
struggled with the rough stages on Friday night,
and then we had the battle with Luke and Richard
for the win. It’s a huge relief to have
finished and to win again. We’ve taken maximum
championship points for the first two rounds, which
will help us massively for the rest of the
season.”
Molly and Jemma won the Swift Sport Cup by 1m
16s from Manxman David Harrison.
Source: femaleracingnews.com/molly-taylor-and-jemma-bellingham-take-podium-at-suzuki-swift-sport-cup/
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