Oliver Solberg, son of the 2003 World Rally Champion Petter Solberg will be making his debut in the Škoda Fabia Rally2 car this weekend at Rally Sweden, taking on the WRC3 class with factory support from Škoda Motorsport.
Oliver made his debut in WRC at Wales Rally GB last season in a Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 alongside his father Petter who was entering the last WRC event of his career, which he also won.
Solberg junior started the season-opener at Rallye Monte-Carlo with his privately entered Polo R5, but makes his step-up in the career by driving for Škoda.
Along with his co-driver Aaron Johnston from Northern Ireland, the duo tested the car a month ago in preparation for the rally.
“It’s such an honour to drive the ŠKODA for the first time in competition – and even more so to do it on my home round of the WRC.” Solberg said.
“ŠKODA is a team which has always been in the world championship for as long as I can remember – it’s the team Colin McRae drove for sometimes! It’s also the team which has an incredible record for this class of car. To be given this opportunity by Michal Hrabánek, (ŠKODA Motorsport team principal) and the team is fantastic.”
“We live in the area close to the rally, so we have known that this would not be such an easy one. We have been missing the winter a lot. As a family we know these organisers, motor clubs and volunteers so well and we know how much work they put in to make this happen.”
“They’re some of the best rally people in the world and if anybody can do it, they can. Lots of people are talking about what might happen with the weather, but right now nobody knows. It can snow like crazy from here until the start and then we’re going to have a very fine rally. Let’s be positive!”
“And anyway, I’m doing the rally in a ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo with this fantastic team around me – this is my dream, so some warm weather’s not going to spoil that for me.” Solberg continued.
“It’s really a bit of a strange feeling for this event. My mum is Swedish and my dad is Norwegian, so to be competing in both countries is really nice for me as I’m a little bit of both as well. To be super-perfect it would be really cool to have our home Mitandersfors stage included – this would go right past my bedroom window!” Solberg added.
