Breaking news

Other rally

Team switch for Subaru's factory Australian rally campaign

Molly Taylor will drive for a new team during the 2019 Australian Rally Championship, as part of a shake-up of Subaru's factory programme.

Andrew van Leeuwen

Published: Jan 22, 2019, 12:30 AM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Molly Taylor, Malcolm Read Subaru WRX STI, Subaru do Motorsport team

The carmaker will shift its factory ARC programme away from Les Walkden Rallying for 2019, instead linking up with another Tasmanian-based team in Orange Motorsport Engineering, run by Craig Brooks.

That ends a three-year relationship with LWR, which helped revive Subaru's factory rally presence down under back in 2016 by taking Taylor to a milestone ARC title, the first for a female driver.

A less official link between LWR and Subaru, which covers decades of running Subarus in the ARC and Asia-Pacific Rally Championship, will continue despite the new factory arrangement.

"We’ve had a fantastic three years with LWR, spearheaded, of course, by Les Walkden, who has brought so much to the sport – and of course Subaru – over several decades," said Subaru Australia Managing Director Colin Christie.

“We now look forward to continued success with Craig’s team.

"It’s a hugely competitive landscape since the advent of lightweight, high-speed AP4 and R5 rally cars in the championship, but we figure we can give them a good run for their money this year, which will make it a gripping contest all round – great for the series and fans alike.”

Taylor added: “We can’t thank Les enough for all that we’ve achieved over the last three years and, of course, winning the Championship in our first year, in 2016, was fantastic and will forever remain a highlight of my career.

“Les and the LWR crew were an integral part of that success and we’ve been privileged to work with them.

“Equally, we look forward to working with Craig and his operation to challenge for the championship in a highly-competitive field.

“Tasmanian-based teams have the ingredients to reach the heights, so we’ll be aiming for the stars.”

The 2019 ARC season kicks off with the Forest Rally in Busselton, Western Australia, on the first weekend in April.

That's followed by rounds in Canberra, Launceston, Ballarat and Adelaide before the season finale at Rally Australia in November.

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Rossi sweeps Monza Rally Show for seventh win

Next article Australian Rally launches new branding for 2019

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Exclusive video: Christian Horner interview on his Red Bull exit, Mercedes rivalry and more

Formula 1

Exclusive video: Christian Horner interview on his Red Bull exit, Mercedes rivalry and more

M-Sport’s 2027 WRC Fiesta Kit car breaks cover

WRC

WRC WRC 1 h

M-Sport’s 2027 WRC Fiesta Kit car breaks cover

Why Bathurst 1000 has lost its international flavour

Supercars

Bathurst 1000

Why Bathurst 1000 has lost its international flavour

‘I’m sideways all the time’ – How Alpine’s feral F1 car plagued Pierre Gasly in Singapore

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Singapore GP

2 h

‘I’m sideways all the time’ – How Alpine’s feral F1 car plagued Pierre Gasly in Singapore

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts