As co-driver for her rally champion partner Tristan Penhall, the 28-year-old acts as his eyes and ears as she helps navigate their way around the race course.

She reads pace-notes from the passenger seat of their Subaru WRX to let him know exactly what lies beyond the dust cloud and around the next sharp bend, while staying alert for any sounds that could signal trouble ahead.

"I get to tell him what to do and he has to listen, he has no choice," grins Jolie, whose helped guide the pair to outright victory in the 2013 Victorian Rally Championship.

"Mind you, there are still occasions when he doesn’t! It’s a good dynamic though, because we have the advantage of knowing each other so well that we understand each other’s tones.

"I just have to change the tone of my voice slightly and he’ll know it might be a slower corner. A lot of tone and inflexion is used in your voice to tell the story of the road.

"I can read his body language as well. It is a bonus and it obviously works well for us."

Despite her love of motorsport, Jolie is no lifelong petrol-head.

In fact, until she met Tristan at a friend's 21st birthday party a decade ago, she'd never even considered climbing into a race car and putting pedal to the metal.

"He grew up with cars and his family were all into it. He won a Bendigo Car Club championship when he was 16 and worked his way up through the ranks."

But it wasn't until the couple had been together about five years and returned to Victoria after a working stint in Tasmania that Tristan got back in his race car and eventually convinced his girlfriend to give racing a go, too.

"My first experience driving on any sort of track was out at Tristan’s parents' place. They had a little track around their block and it was in a really old 1982 Subaru Brumby," Jolie recalls.

"He was in the car next to me, teaching me how to drive. After that, it would have been when we got our first WRX – I just loved it... loved the adrenaline rush."

The pair began competing in the Victorian autocross series and in 2010, Tristan won the championship outright. Jolie was fourth overall behind him and claimed the ladies' title.

That success prompted them to take up rallying.

"It has always been Tristan's dream to win a Victorian rally championship and we were finally in a financial position to give it a go, so we got ourselves a 1994 Subaru WRX.

"In our first year, we came fifth outright. In our second year, we aimed for a podium finish and came second. Last year, we upgraded to a 2006 WRX STI and aimed to win it - and we did."

The Penhall Motorsport team claimed the chequered flag at Rally Victoria in Warragul, the last of six VRC rounds, to clinch the championship victory.

"It was amazing because we sacrificed everything last year," Jolie says. "Tristan is an electrical linesman and works away in Ballarat so we can afford to rally, and we put everything in our life on hold and every spare cent we had went into rallying.

"We bought a truck and a new car and every weekend was about preparing the car, preparing for a rally or being at a rally. There was a lot of stress, so knowing it was all worthwhile was amazing.

"For me, it was emotional to be in the car supporting my partner to achieve his childhood dream. That’s pretty cool – a lot of people have childhood dreams they can’t achieve, so to be able to support him to do that was special."

The couple were buoyed by the backing of local businesses like Innes Motors and Bendigo Tyre Centre, and even engaged an independent pit crew to help them on their winning way.

"In the first couple of years we had Tristan's family and my mum and some friends supporting us, but last year we needed a crew that were confident and independent when we came in to service so Tristan didn't have to get in under the car to fix things," Jolie says.

"We advertised for service crew members and we ended up with two fully qualified mechanics who volunteered their time.

"We paid for their accommodation and other costs for attending the rallies and we've made some good friends out of that. They were Wayne McNaughton, from Trickeys Diesel in Bendigo, and Mark Davey, who is from Bendigo but lives and works in Melbourne for Melbourne Performance Centre, which runs Audi race cars at a much higher level than we do.

"It helped reduce the pressure and stress with what's going on with the car."

Jolie was born in Bendigo but moved to Corryong at 11.

She played netball as a teen and represented her home association in tournaments as a goal shooter, but didn't try taking it any further because of the tyranny of distance.

As an adult living in Tasmania, however, she played state league netball for Devonport.

She studied applied science at uni in Melbourne, majoring in disability studies, and now works as a community development officer for the City of Greater Bendigo, advocating for people with disabilities for accessible facilities and inclusive programs.

"I wanted to work in this field since I was about 16," Jolie says. "I didn't like social injustice and witnessing the isolation people with disabilities went through at school. I thought, this needs to change."

Women are slowly becoming an increasing part of motorsport, whether sitting in a car, being part of a service crews or just an enthusiastic face in the crowd.

"Rallying is a real community to be part of, you catch up with your friends at rallies once a month and it's becoming more of a family environment.

"It was quite daunting for me at first, especially when you start to become more competitive as an autocross driver, because a lot of men get quite annoyed that a female is beating them.

"But it’s becoming more accepted and female co-drivers are now quite highly regarded."

The VRC victory cost Jolie and Tristan thousands of dollars and they are seeking sponsors to help fund their title defence, but she says the sport doesn't have to be prohibitively expensive.

"If you want to win, yes it does and we are both so competitive, we always want to have a car that we can really be competitive in.

"But if you just want to get involved, you can enter in a Hyundai Excel or race whatever car you like on a low budget and a lot of people do just that.

"If anyone is thinking about doing it, get involved because it's such a great community and a great sport. It's a lot of fun."

Jolie often wonders whether she would still co-drive if Tristan was no longer involved, saying part of the enjoyment is sitting alongside her life partner and sharing the experience with the man who has "an amazing ability to drive".

"I enjoy it as a sport but I'm not sure if I would continue without him. I wouldn't call myself a petrol head - I can take or leave cars."

She does admit that her on-road vehicle is a 2011-model Subaru WRX, "so I still like cars - I'm a bit of a contradiction, really".

Jolie says because of their close relationship - or in spite of it - she and Tristan never argue about driving during a competition day.

"I guess we have one thing on our minds and there’s no point arguing because it's to our detriment. But there's stress in the days leading up to rallies and the day before, we go out to note the course. Tristan calls out the notes, I make them in my shorthand and later read them back – there’s a few things we might disagree on in terms of the ratings of the corners. At the end of the day, they are Tristan’s notes so I have to call what he says."

Come race day, with Tristan firmly in the driver's seat, it's Jolie turn to call the shots.

But it’s a more familiar story when she's behind the wheel and they're not rallying.

"Then he tells me what to do - and that’s where we might have our arguments," she laughs.

"I think every couple goes through that, don't they?"