SEVERAL years ago in the United States, a Brazilian Indy Car champion famous mainly for climbing the fence after winning the Indy 500 went on Dancing with the Stars and became a household name almost overnight.
Helio Castroneves was a well-known driver before his time on the hit show but because he raced open wheelers and not NASCAR, and because he wasn’t an American, few outside of the motorsport circle knew of the affable driver with always perfect hair.
Yet his one stint on prime-time TV elevated his profile to remarkable levels and not only changed his career, but gave IndyCar racing a shot in the arm too.
I think we’ve just seen something similar on Australian TV here.
Now my fellow columnist Peter Whitten usually covers off Rallying on these pages, and does it in a much more eloquent and informed way than I do, but it’s impossible for me to not highlight the events of the past few months on Aussie TV.
That’s because a prime-time TV show, not about dancing but one that generated a large amount of media attention regardless, has turned a popular Rally driver into a nationally-recognised figure in just a few weeks.
And that’s a big thing, because despite all the goodwill and effort in the world, Rallying battles to gain the kind of media attention in the specialised motorsport press it deserves, let alone break through into the mainstream media.
And yet, right now, if you had to give Molly Taylor a Q-Score it would be about as high as it could go.
The irony, of course, is that her current profile comes not from her impressive talents behind the wheel, but for her starring role on a just-completed reality TV show called SAS Australia.
If you’ve not seen or heard of it, SAS Australia is modelled on the English original which puts a series of ‘celebrity’ contestants under the command of four rather tough and direct chaps that once raided beaches and hunted down terrorists for the British special forces.
The program extends the physical and mental possibilities of each contestant to breaking point, and slowly the contenders are whittled down and ‘eliminated’ as the show progresses through its duration.
It is brutal stuff for both the brains and brawn of all the contenders – which in this case ranged from professional athletes like ex-Iron Woman Candice Warner, comedian Merrick Watts and former Bali prison inmate, Schapelle Corby.
Amongst the group was our own 2016 Australian Rally Champion.
While Molly is well known in motorsport circles for her trailblazing career both internationally and on home soil (literally), and has been an outstanding media performer representing both the sport and the brands she works with, it would be fair to say that amongst the group of 17 contestants on the show she would be in the bottom three or four in terms of public awareness.
Those that either knew Molly before the show, or knew what she has achieved and how she’s achieved it, would have factored her in as a chance because they’d all seen her grit, determination, ability and courage behind the wheel of a Subaru Rally car – let alone her physical fitness levels.
But outside of the small group of like-minded people and perhaps a few others, few would have known who Molly Taylor was when the show started.
In the early weeks of the program, she didn’t get much time in the edit; the high profile ‘big name’ celebs showcased as they battled to stay in the show, or hand in their ‘number’ and depart.
Peter covered this when he wrote about this very situation in a column back in late October, during the early stages of the competition (Rally star Molly proving she’s got what it takes).
And yet as the field was thinned, Molly rose in prominence as she continued to push and push all the way into the final five contestants left on the show.
She stopped playing second fiddle to the ‘celebrities’ and started being included more and more in the show thanks to her remarkable achievements alone – not the fact she was a household name.
Along the way she did things no female had ever done in the history of the show anywhere in the world and introduced a large audience – ten times that any Rally coverage in Australia receives – to her grit and determination. It was a remarkable achievement.
Pop her name in a Google News search this week and rather than the motorsport websites popping up, the results list is filled with mainstream outlets hailing her performance.
It could not have happened to a better representative for our sport and at the same time, our sport couldn’t have had a better representative on a mainstream show like this.
Undeniable talents aside, Molly is articulate, an engaging interview and brilliant with fans and the next-generation of racers alike. It’s why Subaru continue to engage her as an ambassador, despite having pulled the pin on their factory Rally involvement, and why she’s been tapped to be a TV commentator on coverage of TCR and other Shannons Motorsport Australia classes next year.
The best possible outcome from her starring performance in prime-time TV – and the broader public recognition that will come from it – is that it leads to more sponsorship and more opportunities to again showcase her ability behind the wheel at the highest levels possible.
And also that those mainstream media outlets I mentioned continue to hail her performances – but this time in the Rally Car.
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