An Incredible Ride

Molly Taylor has been VERY busy. Since winning the Australian Rally Championship in 2016—she was the first female driver to ever do so— she has been a finalist on reality show SAS Australia, become a TV motorsport reporter and started a business and YouTube channelwith her partner. Plus she won the inaugural Extreme E Championship for electric off-road vehicles, competed twice in the gruelling Dakar Rally and
contested the international 2025 Race of Champions.

In the latter three events, nine-time world rally champion Sébastien Loeb also took part. Taylor laughingly denies she’s a stalker but admits competing against him is one of the highlights of her life. “I had pictures of him on my bedroom wall while I was growing up. He was such a hero of mine, so to line up against him in the first year of Extreme E was a real ‘pinch me’ moment,” she says.

“It’s an incredible series in terms of the drivers and also the organisers— what they are trying to achieve with technology, environmental awareness and equality. It reinvigorated my career.”

Taylor’s most recent high-profile event was the stadium spectacle, Race of Champions, in March this year in Sydney. For more than 30 years, ROC has created motorsport showdowns around the world, pitting champion drivers from different categories against each other.
In this year’s event, Australia was represented by Taylor, offroad motorcycle star Toby Price, and Supercar drivers Chaz Mostert, Will
Brown and Brodie Kostecki. Taylor was eliminated in the quarter final so missed the final (Mostert versus Loeb;the Frenchman won) but loved the experience.

“I have watched Race of Champions so much over the years and when the organiser sent a text inviting me, I initially thought it can’t be true, but then it was like, ‘Whatever I was planning on doing, I’m not now; I’m definitely available!’”

Taylor would love another tilt at ROC, along with another run [or more] at Dakar. Coming from a strong motorsport family, Dakar was always watched at home, and always on her bucket list. She says it was “surreal” when she actually got to compete in the event in 2022 and 2023.

“I don’t think I really knew what I was in for because it sort of came together very much last minute. You prepare asmuch as you can, but nothing could prepare me for what it is actually really like.

“It is one of the most amazing events you can do but also one of the hardest and most challenging. It’s one of those things, like any big challenge, where at some point you ask yourself, ‘Was this a good idea?’, then as soon as you finish you want to do more.”

Taylor has always focused more on opportunities than her gender, so she didn’t even think about being the first Australian female to contest the event. She just wants the chance to compete on equal terms. That was one of the aspects of Extreme E that she enjoyed so much; each team had a male and a female driver and the times of both determined the results. While her gender has neverbeen uppermost in her mind, Taylor does understand how important her achievements as a woman in the sport are to those who might want to followin her footsteps.

“That’s the whole thing about motorsport. It’s not about being male or female. You either do the job, or you don’t. I don’t personally care if
I’m the first or the 10th woman, but I do appreciate and feel strongly about that visibility being used to help shape young girls’ perceptions of what is possible. They need to see that whatever they want to do, they can.”

Meanwhile, Taylor has somehow found the time and energy to create MaD Garage with her automotivejournalist partner, Dan (M-a-D spelt
backwards). They run an automotive and motorsport garage and create a lot of content around their work and sponsorship commitments, and general car culture. She describes it as both a lot of fun and hard work.

Taylor also finds time to appear on TV as a pit lane reporter for the Seven Network’s coverage of various Supercar rounds. She started her TV career with the SpeedSeries before joining the Supercar family and is looking forward to being part of the Bathurst 1000 coverage.
“It is a huge challenge from a completely different side of the sport but I enjoy it. There’s that adrenaline and pressure of live TV, so I still get that little buzz. And looking at it from the opposite side of the garage, as it were, seeing how all the teams operate and the drivers react to certain things, is really interesting. “I have so much to learn in that field, but it’s good fun being around goodpeople and being able to have a laugh. I really hope it is something I can keep doing alongside my own racing.