Petter Solberg gleder seg til comeback og å kjøre mot sønnen Oliver i denne helgens EM-runde i rally i Sverige. Les mer i denne pressemeldingen på engelsk.
| Family outings don’t come much better than this.
It’s time for Royal Rally of Scandinavia (June 13-15), known in the Solberg household as the ultimate family battle. It’s Oliver against Petter. Youth taking on experience. World championship contender plays three-time world champion.
It’s father versus son.
“I can’t wait,” said Oliver, who won the inaugural Royal Rally of Scandinavia 12 months ago. “We’re talking a lot about this battle, who is going to win between my father and me and all of that is very nice – but the main thing is that I’m just super-happy to be out there racing against him again.
“There’s something very special to be at a stage start and for us both to be pulling on our crash helmets and our driving gloves. It’s really cool.”
Oliver’s Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 and Petter’s family Volkswagen Polo R5 will feature a new livery for this event – both cars reflecting the partnership with Safedrive, Norway’s best-selling traffic alarm system.
The Karlstad-based round of the European Rally Championship gets underway with a crowd-pleasing superspecial stage on Thursday evening before the competition goes between the trees for two days of flat-out racing through the Värmland forests.
“As well as competing on my home event,” added Oliver, “this rally will also bring me some good seat time and experience before the World Rally Championship moves into some of the more high-speed events.
“I think the competition will be tough, there’s some very fast drivers in the ERC. I won last year, it would be nice to do the same this time. And, of course, it would be nice to beat Pappa.”
Solberg Sr is out to enjoy himself.
“That’s it,” he said. “I just go to enjoy it, to take some speed and have some fun on the roads.
“What did Oliver say? Did he say the same thing? Did he say he’s going to beat me, if he did then you can tell him I will win! Seriously, this will be something really fun for us. We did it before, when we were competing on Rally GB in 2019. Did he tell you who won then? Ask him…
“It’s so nice for the fans and for our families to come and watch this one. It’s so close to our home and Oliver was the one really pushing me to do it. The Polo was just sitting there – the car was also telling me to do it. The car hasn’t changed at all since Oliver used it to win last year. It’s just been sitting there for the last 12 months…”
Not long to wait now. Rallying’s most talked about family feud is about to be decided in the Swedish stages. Oliver and Petter are ready, Elliott Edmondson and Jonas Andersson (their respective co-drivers) are ready and their cars are ready.
Oliver: “Did he tell you his car has been sitting there for one year with no work? Don’t believe that! He’s been working so hard on it. All the time: work on the car, in the gym, on the simulator, on the quadbike, work on the car. OK, I’m joking now… but only a little bit!”
Ends |