MOTORSPORT: Taylor heads new Subaru rally program

Subaru is returning to battle Toyota in the Australian Rally Championship with a new team and a new focus.

Former national champion Molly Taylor will continue to lead Subaru do Motorsport but will be driving an all-new WRX STI fielded by Orange Motorsport Engineering in 2019.

The renewed commitment by Subaru Australia will take it head-to-head against Toyota in an extension of their long-term rally rivalry, which is second only to Ford-versus-Holden in Australian motorsport.

“We’ll be aiming for the stars,” Taylor tells carsales. “We need to get back to where we should be. It’s not going to be easy, but we’ve got every chance. That’s certainly my target, and it’s also the team’s target.”

The 2019 program is the fourth season for Subaru since it returned to forest racing, but the first time it will come up against a genuine factory-backed Toyota Gazoo Racing team which will field a pair of Toyota Yaris hatches for Canberra brothers Harry and Lewis Bates.

“It’s fantastic to have Subaru continuing in the sport. It’s exactly what rallying needs and I’m looking forward to the battle this year,” the Toyota GR team owner, Neal Bates, tells carsales.

The new Subaru set-up follows a comprehensive review of the rally program by Subaru Australia, which has used the sport as a cornerstone of its all-wheel drive marketing since the 1980s.

It’s meant a move away from Les Walkden Rallying, which has been involved in the sport for decades including seasons with Mitsubishi, to the relatively young Orange Motorsport.

“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,” says the managing director of Subaru Australia, Colin Christie.

Subaru has won a total of 16 drivers' championships since Barry Lowe went back-to-back in 1985 and 1986 driving a relatively primitive RX Turbo out of South Australia.

Rob Herridge extended Subaru’s success in 1991 and 1992, driving an RX Turbo and then a Liberty, racking up dozens of Nullabor crossings from his headquarters in Perth.

But it was the speedy and spectacular Possum Bourne who starred for Subaru, and helped turn the Impreza WRX into a cult car in Australia, as he and his protege Cody Crocker racked up 10 championships from 1996 to 2005.

More recently, Toyota defector Simon Evans took a title in 2010 before Taylor became the series champion, and the first woman to win a major motorsport title in Australia, in 2016.

But since Taylor’s championship in 2016 the team has slid backwards, only managing fourth in 2018.

By contrast, the Orange Motorsport outfit owned by telecom entrepreneur Craig Brooks has gone forward and his Impreza driver, Steve Glenney, was runner-up in 2018 to Eli Evans in a Skoda despite having to also run one of the Czech cars in the title decider after binning Brooks’ favourite Subaru in Rally SA.

Brooks has an all-new WRX STI nearly ready to rally, and says the car he is fielding for Taylor and co-driver Malcolm Read will be the quickest he has entered in the Australian championship.

“We are relatively new to this but what we have is incredible passion. Passion is what it’s all about,” says Brooks.

“I’m excited. Not just for myself, but for the team and the recognition of the team and their skills.”

Orange operates from a base at Burnie in Tasmania and, for the first time, will not have a car in the team’s signature orange bodywork.

“Subaru has entrusted their reputation to us and we’ve honoured to have our car in Subaru blue. The new car we’re building, we believe, will be the best Subaru that has been seen under the latest Production Rally Car rules.”

Brooks know that Toyota will be competing under the less restrictive AP4 regulations, which effectively permit a prototype car, but he is confident the latest Impreza will do the job.

“We’re representing a manufacturer so the car needs to be reliable and right. And fast.”

Subaru is planning several pre-season tests ahead of the ARC opener in Perth in April.

“We have a number of things we want to test. There are a couple of rule changes and we’ve built a new car that is lighter and stronger, so we want to get it dialled in for the season,” says Brooks.

The Australian Rally Championship dates for 2019:

April 5-7, Forest Rally, WA; May 10-11, National Capital Rally, ACT; June 21-23, Rally Tasmania, Tas; Sept 20-22, Adelaide Hills Rally, SA; November 15-17, Rally Australia, NSW.