Supercars Molly Going Global
The rookie of the year on Supercars television, Molly Taylor, is living her life like a game of Tetris.
In addition to media career working a microphone in the pitlane at Supercars and TCR meetings, she is also competing in three different forms of motorsport through season 2021 topped by the global Extreme E series for electric off-road buggies.
And then there is the plan for something new and big overseas, that she cannot discuss . . .
“Tetris? That’s pretty accurate at the moment,” Taylor told Race News.
“But it’s exciting to have so much on the go, especially through all the ups and downs of motorsport. You try so hard to get things happening and you cannot afford to let anything go. It’s nice to have the opposite problem to normal, trying to make everything fit.
“You’re always trying to put every iron in the fire. It’s a good situation to have too much and then try to figure out what to do. You don’t want to put all your eggs in one basket.
“So it’s both enjoyable and hard work. It’s exhausting and challenging. But it’s what I’m choosing to do.”
Taylor said she is enjoying her expanded role in the media, interviewing the Supercars stars for the first time at Mount Panorama after kicking off with TCR in Tasmania, but is also keen to get going on her own driving career.
Her next start is in side-by-side off-roading, followed by testing in a Subaru Impreza for the Australian Rally Championship, before she heads overseas to begin her Extreme E career in Saudi Arabia.
When she looks at her calendar, ‘Molly Rally’ can see she will spend a crushing three months of 2021 in quarantine to satisfy her overseas ambitions and she has already clocked up seven weeks to get herself to Europe and back for the Team Rosberg program in Extreme E.
“I’m getting a good little tally of days in isolation. It’s pretty crap. But, on the flip-side, that’s the price to pay for all these cool things,” she said.
“Last time it ended up being a bit of a boot camp in a hotel room. I can always find some things to do.
“I’ve got some speaking opportunities and things to work on. And just sitting on a bicycle a lot and trying to keep fit.”
She also has the support of her partner Dan Gardner, a motoring journalist with a a degree in mechanical design, who delights in travelling the country and working as Taylor’s ‘man-bag’ and support network.
“I just think he’s the most awesome human on the planet. How else would you describe Dan?,” she said.
“It’s great to have someone who is 110 per cent supportive, and not threatened or jealous about my success.”
Taylor’s media career is exploding but it comes after a long-term deal as a brand ambassador for Subaru off the back of her title success in the ARC, which followed more than four years of life in England to chase rally opportunities without making the crucial breakthrough into the World Rally Championship.
Taylor tried to get something happening in the American rally championship, but Covid-19 put an end to that ambition, but it was more than compensated by the Extreme E opportunity.
“My main gig this year is Extreme E, but I’m also doing side-by-sides, and we’re trying to put together some sort of rally program in Australia.
“I’m also working on something else. But it’s too early to talk about it,” Taylor said.
“It’s outside outside Australia, that’s all I’ll say.”
