Molly Taylor on why she's taking on the 2022 Dakar Rally

Being a woman in a male-dominated industry – Molly Taylor is used to blazing a trail.

She was the first non-Brit to win the British Ladies Rally Championship in 2009 and the first female to win the Australian Rally Championship (ARC) in 2016.

Now she looks set to go even further to become the first Australian woman to take on the unforgiving Dakar Rally in 2022 with the Can Am Factory South Racing team.

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It’s hard to imagine there is anything the 33-year-old Sydney-born racer couldn’t do if she put her mind to it – that much is clear. It goes beyond talent, she has both fierce passion and unstoppable ambition, traits demonstrated when she took on SAS Australia last year.

The Dakar Rally, originally called the Paris to Dakar upon its inception in 1978, is the toughest, most gruelling form of motorsport in the world.

Starting in Ha’il, Saudi Arabia, on January 2, 2022’s rally is made up of 13 stages that take place in the Arabian Peninsula over as many days, and involves racers venturing into the ‘empty quarter’ – a desert nearly the size of France.

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The competition is yet another exciting international opportunity for Molly – who, with only one race to go, continues to lead the championship of the inaugural 2021 Extreme E series with fellow driver Johan Kristofferson.

Molly caught up with Wheels after pledging to tackle the world-famous rally while speaking during a Supercars event at the weekend.

“Dakar for me has always been on my bucket list, but I thought of it as being sometime in the distant future – maybe before I retired,” she tells us. “Doing the Extreme E and getting a bit more into the off-roading led me down this path and gave me the opportunity to do it sooner than I had ever thought would be a possibility.

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“I suppose it’s the challenge and adventure of it which appeals to me. All the different skills you need means I personally would find it demanding – can I get through the toughest race there is?”

Though competing in the Extreme E series has already taken Molly to Saudi, she still feels there is a lot to learn about how to handle the tough terrain and unique circumstances this race involves, and isn’t taking anything for granted.

“Some of the terrains will be similar to [what we did in] Extreme E, but everything about that was completely new to everyone involved – no-one knew what to expect. In Dakar I will be going into a new world trying to adapt, but it’s not new to everyone. I will have to learn very quickly.

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“Extreme E was my first time in Saudi Arabia doing something like that, and it was very eye-opening. Some of the terrain was mental and the drops were just massive. Following that I did a race in Abu Dhabi, but the tracks were only 8-10kms long and in Dakar we’ll be going for thousands of kilometres.

“I want to do well, but I’m not naive that I can come in on my first go and win. I have never done anything like that before, meanwhile there are people who have been doing it a long time, and still anything can happen – there is so much more skill to it than just driving. Reading the terrain, for example, knowing how to look after the car and so on.”

Key to thriving in this most intense of rallies means preparation – and lots of it, including another opportunity to scope out the landscape coming from an upcoming race in Saudi Arabia next month.

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“I have a lot of preparation to do because I am so new to this discipline,” Molly says. “The navigation is different for one thing, and overall it’s just another world completely compared to rally. I’ve got a lot of work to do planning how to do it and how to do it well, even just down to something like being in the car all the time in the middle of the desert.

“The different way the navigation works is new for me – finding the fastest and smartest lines and also driving in the dunes quickly is a real skill. It’s different to any other kind of driving – rally or road.

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“From there it’s about managing what speed is right to still be fast, but not create any issues, and that will be really difficult without any experience. I will be training, watching footage of other people from previous events – their lines and bits and pieces like that – but of course there’s nothing as good as actually doing it yourself.”

For the ultimate challenge, Molly has once again teamed up with Dale Moscatt, an experienced co-driver who has previously competed in the European Championship, WRC and Dakar. Together they have a rich history. Molly first drove with Dale in the 2007 and 2008 ARCs, as well as in 2020.

“It was really important for me to be with someone I already knew and had a relationship with,” Molly adds. “I’ve known Dale for ages, and he has done Dakar before, so it was perfect that he could help me with learning. And there are also the other guys in the team who have done it before, and won four times, so I just need to listen and learn from them.”

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Of course there are challenges beyond the driving or harsh climate for females competing in Dakar. 2020’s event attracted widespread criticism because of the way women are treated in Saudi Arabia.

Though the ban on women driving was lifted in the nation in 2018, because women there must have a male legal guardian, they need approval for the simplest of things we in Australia take for granted – such as enrolling in school and university or applying for a passport.

However, Aussie rally champ and Subaru ambassador Molly says her experiences in motorsport have left her feeling optimistic about the future.

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“I haven’t spent much time there [in the Middle East], but during the time I did spend, I saw a big push to get females into motorsport and personally have only felt welcomed and encouraged – no-one was telling me ‘no a female can’t do that’,” she says.

“As far as we know, this is the first time there has been a female Australian taking part in Dakar, and I think it is a good thing for the visibility of females in motorsport back in Australia – but it would still be special to me if I was the 2nd, 3rd or even 10th Australian woman to do it. If I can help promote the sport to other young girls who might see it and think they want to check it out, I’d be really happy to be a part of that.

“It is different for everyone, certainly there is more criticism of women, more people watching with certain expectations – but I also think sometimes there are more opportunities as well. For me it has always just been about enjoying what I do. As long as you are professional and doing a good job and going about it the right way that’s all you can do.

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“More often the problem is from the outside than within the industry itself – people generally want to see more women involved, but you’re never going to please everyone. When I see a young girl who enjoys it and is passionate, that’s really special.

“I did a couple of school visits with Subaru and at rally events, as well as with the FIA Girls on Track program. Having an impact on other women was something I never really thought about much until I started working with Subaru – just seeing the young girls looking up to me hit home.

“I had my mum [four-time ARC champion co-driver Coral Taylor] as my inspiration growing up. I was very fortunate and unique in that sense, yet I didn’t appreciate the impact it had on me at the time. I have the perspective now and realise I can help make the sport better which is special. There’s more work to do, but it’s good to see it making a difference already.”

The Dakar Rally will air on SBS January 2-14.