“I learned so much from my first experience!”

Raised in a family of motorsports fanatics, it was bound to be. On her bucket list was that big name: the Dakar. Molly Taylor was like a child in a sweet shop when she entered the world’s toughest rally and certainly just as satisfied when she reached the finish last January. At only 34 years of age, she’s travelled the world and competed in some legendary races. It all started with traditional rallies, first on home soil then in Great Britain, Europe (ERC) and all the way up to WRC, before becoming the first female and youngest winner of the Australian Rally Championship. Her first taste of the desert came from competing in Extreme E where she was able to have a first taste of the Dakar through chats with the likes of Sebastien Loeb, Carlos Sainz, Cristina Gutierrez or Laia Sanz. The Dakar was of course a whole new world for Molly but she learned fast thanks to the experience of the Can-Am Factory South Racing team. Now to round 2: in other words making the best of her learning experience to improve last year’s 14th spot overall. But for this second tour of Saudi Arabia, the Aussie will have a former biker at her side. Indeed, USA’s Andrew Short, a fomer supercross rider who turned to rallies switches from two to four wheels after finishing four out of five of his Dakars including three top 10 spots (6th on 2019). The new pair had a first experience together during the last Morocco rally that they finished in 8th position. It’s now time to do at least as well on the Dakar.

MT: “I come from a family of motorsports. My grand-father was in rallying and my mother was a 4-time Australian champion as a co-driver. I started at the age of 15, so I can say that motorsports are my life. I had always been thinking of doing more off-road. The Dakar was a race I used to watch. I remember sitting on my couch seeing what people had to go through in the middle of nowhere. I learned so much from my first experience at the Dakar and I really can’t wait to build on everything that we’ve learnt. As part of our preparation we also took on the Morocco rally. Let’s get started.”

AS: “The last two seasons at Yamaha were a great experience. Over the last two years I really enjoyed the team, staff and most of all going racing around the world. I love rally. The passion, adventure and people in the bivouac that make this sport the best. I am bummed that I didn’t deliver the results and goals we set but it wasn’t from a lack of effort on either end. After living two wheel life it was cool to learn something new with this whole car life thing and see something completely different. In Morocco it was so much fun riding in the right seat navigating with Molly. I didn’t really know what to expect. Molly was super cool and fast which definitely helped the fun factor. The first day in Morocco, I really screwed up once with navigation and it was a big learning experience with communication. We were stoked to get to the finish line each day and ended up 8th overall in T4.”