Hele familien Solberg stiller til start i Royal Rally of Scandinavia til helgen. Les mer i denne pressemeldingen på engelsk.
The Solberg family will be out in force when the FIA European Rally Championship comes to Sweden for BAUHAUS Royal Rally of Scandinavia next week.
Oliver Solberg will lead the charge aboard a Volkswagen Polo R5. The 21-year-old has enjoyed an impressive season to date, winning almost every other stage he has started in a Rally2 car at WRC level (started 128 stages and won 59, 46% success rate). Now though, it’s time to bring it home.
Oliver and co-driver Elliott Edmondson are the only members of Team Solberg who will tackle the main event, with Petter, Pernilla and Henning Solberg focusing their efforts on entertaining the crowds at the Ängebäckstorp stage on Friday and the Collins stage on Saturday.
Petter drives the Citroën C4 WRC he used to finish third in the 2010 world championship. Co-driving for him? His mother Tove.
Pernilla’s visit to the famous Colin’s Crest will also come via memory lane as she’s reunited with her co-driver Ulrika Mattsson. The Swedish ladies will crew the Group N Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI they used to great effect in the world championship in 2000.
Henning and Maud Solberg are out in Petter’s Toyota Celica Turbo 4WD.
Petter: “What can I say? It’s going to be a very special week for us. For me, it’s very cool that I get to drive my mother in a rally car. Like you know, she’s an amazing driver herself – she won so many Norwegian Autocross titles. She’s 72 and I’m sure she’s going to be giving me some advice when we take the start line.
“Honestly, when we first heard about the plans for this rally, we were completely behind it. For Värmland, this is a big event and a big deal. It’s been a couple of years without Rally Sweden in the area, so to bring rallying back at almost the highest level is very important.
“And it’s a lot for us Solbergs too. We have a lot of family, friends and partners coming to the event – it’s a fantastic way to show them what we are doing all of our lives!”
Pernilla is similarly excited about what lies ahead next week.
“For Ulrika and I it will be incredible to start a stage together again after such a long time. We had some amazing times together and for one weekend it’s going to be special to share some time and those memories.
“It’s also going to be quite strange to drive these roads in the summer. Places like the Vargåsen stage will be very different – coming into Colin’s Crest with no snow and everybody wearing t-shirts and shorts will be weird. But it’s going to be huge fun.
“Big congratulations to Glenn [Olsson, rally director] and his team for what they have achieved in bringing the European Rally Championship to Karlstad. It’s been a lot of work for them, but it’s going to be fantastic.”
Understandably, Oliver’s focused more on the competition and the task in hand.
“The European championship is really strong this year,” said the Monster Energy-backed star who has just returned from playing a starring – and dominant – role at Safari Rally Kenya. “When you have guys like Hayden [Paddon] and Mads [Østberg] the fight is always going to be a big one. I like that.
“It’s nice to be back driving the Polo again. I didn’t use this car much for the last three years, but the last time I was in it I won a rally in Wales at the end of last season. This event is about special memories for everybody, my Momma, Pappa and Uncle Henning and I have my own special memories for the Polo.
“I can’t believe it’s already four years since I made was the youngest winner ever in European Rally Championship. That was in Latvia in the Polo when I was 17! I’m going to enjoy the weekend – and take some nice seat time on some fast gravel roads which will be useful with Rally Estonia coming up.”
BAUHAUS Royal Rally of Scandinavia gets underway with shakedown on Thursday before eight stages run on Friday and Saturday, centred from a service park in Karlstad.