Haye: Joe has edge on Dubois
Neil Moxley
CATIE MUNNINGS fell in love with rally driving when she thought she was going to lose her young life crashing into a tree.
Fortunately for the toddler her father, Chris, pulled off a handbrake turn in the nick of time, saving her from danger.
But the adrenaline rush has stayed with her ever since, to the point where she is now one of the country’s top female drivers.
Munnings is just 22, but has turned her back on academia, her ambitions of being a vet and every other avenue open to her to follow a career pushing herself and her car to the limits at crazy speeds on a variety of forest tracks.
She said: “My dad had a motorsport entertainment company on the farm where I grew up.
“He set up driving schools and, when I was five or six, I went to work with him.
“It was the first time I had sat alongside him, in a Mark II Escort. I was so tiny that I could hardly see over the dashboard. But I did have a vivid image of us hurtling towards a line of trees.
“We were going faster and faster towards them. I couldn’t see where the road was. All I could see were these trees coming closer and closer and then, at the last minute, he spun it around a hairpin and we were off.
“I remember the thrill that went through me. There was just an adrenaline rush. Thinking back, I can’t believe he did it.” Too late, Munnings was hooked.
Lessons
“I was a tomboy,” she said, “I would come home from school and jump on a quad bike. I would be in my school uniform racing the instructors around the woods.
“It was an unconventional upbringing. I was constantly covered in mud.
“We used to have my friends over and I’d give them their first driving lessons when we were about 12 or 13.
“I’d have this old banger and
DAVID HAYE reckons Joe Joyce’s know-how and engine will give him the edge over Daniel Dubois.
The pair are set to meet on July 11 after their clash for the British heavyweight title and vacant European we would drive it through the woods doing handbrake turns.”
Munnings has even hosted her own children’s television show, ‘Catie’s Amazing Machines’, in which she was behind the wheel of all things mechanical.
But thoughts of that early adrenaline rush were never far from her mind.
The problem is, most of the top drivers in the World Rally Championship are male.
She said: “At the top of our sport there’s no female drivers in the WRC factory cars. That’s something I’m aspiring to.
“For me, having a successful career, not so much testing myself against the girls but against the boys and pushing the limits there.
“That would be my definition of success – to be on a level heavyweight crown was moved from April 11.
Many believe the explosive power of KO specialist Dubois, 22, will be too much for Joyce, 34.
But former multi-weight, multiple world champion Haye is convinced the 2016 Olympic silver medallist’s experience and fitness can playing field and achieving the same results as the boys can. Hopefully there will be a situation where I can match them.
“It’s not a physical ability sport. It’s not manual labour. It’s not something where my height or weight comes into it.
“If anything, me and my co-driver are lighter than the men.
“And yes, I always have female co-drivers. My dad always had them as he felt they could multitask better.
“He really liked the soothing tone of the female voice, so he says. That’s what I’ve always had.
“Also, we thought it sent a powerful message for women of having two girls in the car at the same time.” be decisive. Haye said: “It’s a great fight. Both want to prove they are No.1. It’s a great opportunity.
“I can see Dubois’ punch power being a big issue for Joyce and I can see Joyce’s relentless engine being higher than anything Dubois has been in with.
“I definitely feel that
Message
Joyce has the advantage with the experience. He has fought the better opposition, whereas Dubois has had the more conclusive knockouts.
“So it’s a genuine 50-50 fight. But I would edge towards Joyce – he is more proven as an amateur and a professional.”