Molly Taylor from Sydney already is the world’s No. 1 female rally driver, having won the Ladies Trophy in the European Rally Championship (ERC) last year.
This week she makes her debut in the Junior World Rally Championship (JWRC) in Portugal and giving her directions, calling the shots from pace notes in the co-driver’s seat, will be her mother, Coral.
They will be in a Citroen DS3 R3T, the same kind of car 25-year-old Molly drove in the ERC.
This campaign won’t have the profile of Ricciardo racing with Red Bull in F1, but young Miss Taylor will be in the same events as rallying’s top guns, led by French world champion Sebastien Ogier.
Her Citroen has been prepared by D-Max Racing, an Italian specialist in supplying customer rally cars.
Coral Taylor is a four-time national champion co-driver, having guided Neal Bates to legend status in Australian rallying in Toyotas.
Along with other privateer teams, daughter and mother had a few runs in the Citroen overnight on a short stage about 50km from Faro, the southernmost city in Portugal and capital of the Algarve region where Rally Portugal will be centred.
Although Molly has some experience in Portugal from her time in the WRC Academy, it was her first time driving on the Michelin tyre compounds she will have for this event.
Her other priority was “getting a good feeling in the car with the ‘old girl’ [Coral]!” she said.
Now come two days of reconnaissance of the event’s stages in the Algarve forests before final shakedown and then the start and first super special stage in Lisbon, Portugal’s capital three hours north of Faro, on Thursday.
The JWRC field is scheduled to do the full 16 stages of the event, a total distance of almost 1395km, up until Sunday.
Rally Portugal is regarded as the most technically difficult gravel round in the 13-event WRC with fast, open roads mixed with narrow tracks and littered with blind crests, making accurate pace notes vital.
The Taylors have competed together before, with Coral calling the corners for Molly for two rounds of the Citroen Racing Trophy -- Rally Isle of Man and Ulster Rally – in the 2010 British Rally Championship.
That year they also did the Pirelli Star Driver Shootout together in Spain, where
Molly won one of six scholarships to the 2011 WRC Academy – the one-make (Ford) junior development series in the WRC.
The Taylors have a six-event JWRC schedule this season, but as yet are not starters for Rally Australia at Coffs Harbour in mid-September.
Their program beyond Portugal is Rally Poland (June 26-29), Rally Finland (July 31-August 3), Rally Germany (August 22-24), Rally France (October 3-5) and Rally Great Britain in Wales (November 14-16).