Early exit for Molly Taylor

Subaru do Motorsport’s Molly Taylor and Malcolm Read have had a disappointing end to their 2018 CAMS Australian Rally Championship, a high speed crash this morning forcing their retirement from the three-day Kennards Hire Rally Australia.

Taylor and Read were sitting fourth in the ARC pointscore and still had a slim shot at the 2018 title. However, it all came unstuck on this morningโ€™s second stage when the Subaru WRX STi left the road and collided with a hay bale, which was positioned to guard a tree trunk.

The Subaru crew were checked out by medical staff on stage after reporting soreness and were subsequently transported by a rally Medical Intervention Vehicle to the rally village medical centre for further medical checks. Both report soreness but no other injuries.

It was another story for the teamโ€™s WRX STI, which was badly damaged in the engine bay area, firstly by the impact and secondly by a car fire.

The stage was stopped for a period to enable emergency crews to access the incident, which occurred 7.2 kilometres into the stage.