The second round of The Solberg World Cup in the DiRT Rally 2.0 saw competitors take on the Cirkle K Norge Rally Värmland on snowy and smooth stages, now it is time for new challenges as the players will head to round three at Pirelli Rally Argolis in Greece.
The Solberg World Cup in association with DirtFish has been growing in popularity in the past weeks, with 13,864 taking on the second round that saw xVzombieSlayaaVx top the standings, and is now leads the club championship.
The first round was held on the snowy and icy mountains of Monte-Carlo, where the players had to guide their rally cars through twisty and narrow mountain-side routes before heading to Sweden where players had to adapt themselves once again for new challenges on snow filled fast stages and high snow banks.
ERT_CRsedmicky won the opening-round at Monte-Carlo and then finished sixth in Sweden, dropping down a place in the standings as a result.
The man himself behind all this, Oliver Solberg, son of 2003 FIA World Rally champion Petter Solberg, ended his second round outside top 10 with a well deserved eleventh place and now moves up to eighth in the championship.
“I was happy with the performance. Like the first round in Monte, it was really close and tense competition. Maybe I have done more practice in these stages, it’s a little bit natural that you are going to spend longer doing your own home rally.” Oliver said.
“I love the conditions in Sweden, Codemasters did such a fantastic job with this event on DiRT Rally 2.0 – it’s amazing. You can push hard, really hard and use the snowbanks. This rally is rewarding you to take the risk and go as bit faster.”
The Solberg family has always had a great relationship with the Italian tyre firm Pirelli who will be presenting the third round. In 2003 when Petter claimed the world honour, Pirelli supplied the Subaru factory team with tyres. Petter also won the 2004 edition of Rally Acropolis.
“The Solberg family are huge friends of Pirelli: we’ve got some fantastic memories of Petter’s achievements with us in the past, and we’re looking forward to seeing more of Oliver on the world’s stages in future.” Mario Isola, Pirelli’s head of F1 and racing, said.
“Unfortunately, that’s not going to be for a while because of the Covid-19 pandemic. So, in the meantime, we’re delighted to put our name to Greece’s round of the Solberg World Cup – Pirelli Rally Argolis which is online from now until Sunday.
“Petter won the Acropolis Rally with us in Greece in 2004 – but this time the Solbergs will be up against thousands of other competitors virtually, so it’s going to be fun to see how the gamers stack up against the professionals!”
Oliver is hoping for better chance in Greece where he will use a more tactical style of driving this time and follow his dads advices on how to tackle the rocky stages.
“This one is going to be hard work. We will have to be much more aware to look after the car in these really hot conditions. Papa was saying he thinks we should make everybody turn up the heating or sit in front of the fire to do this one – just to make it more realistic!
“Sweden was the rally to attack, this is maybe the one to take a tactical approach and drive more with the head. Let’s see…” Oliver added.
Pirelli Rally Argolis is starting on Monday 4 May and ends on Sunday 10 May at midnight. The Checkered Flag’s own staff will also be joining the fight out on the stages.
