SOLBERG JR SECURES SUBARU DEAL FOR AMERICA
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Oliver Solberg was just a one-year-old when he first sat behind the wheel of a factory Subaru Impreza WRC. He can’t remember it. His father Petter will never forget it – certainly not now his 17-year-old son will be donning the same blue and yellow race suit to become the second Solberg to drive a works Subaru.
Solberg Jr has been announced as a driver in the Subaru Motorsports USA squad for six rounds of this year’s American Rally Association (ARA) series, where he will team up with Britain’s all-conquering stateside star David Higgins. Higgins has won America’s premier rally title for the last six years.
For Solberg Jr, his debut at next month’s 100 Acre Wood Rally in Missouri can’t come soon enough. The 2003 World Rally champion Petter is looking forward to that one as well. “I tell you,” Solberg Sr told Motorsport News, “there will be some emotion from Pernilla [Solberg’s wife] and me when we see Oliver drive over the start ramp in that car and in those colours. You know me, and your readers know me, and know what Subaru means to me – we were all part of that journey a few years ago and I never forget this. To have Oliver driving for Subaru now is incredible.
“The most amazing part about all of this for me, though, is that he has done this whole deal for himself. He’s done all the work, all the meetings, everything. It’s fantastic for him.”
Solberg, who is co-driven by Britain’s Aaron Johnston, has made a great start to his fourwheel-drive rally career, winning the first two rounds of this year’s Latvian Rally Championship at the wheel of a Volkswagen Polo GTI R5.
Solberg Jr knows, however, that the roads in America will be something else – and going up against team-mate and defending champion Higgins will give him the perfect marker.
“I have seen some of the pictures from the events in America and the roads look amazing,” said Solberg Jr. “David knows the team and the championship so well, it’s going to be fantastic to work with him and with Travis [Pastrana], who will drive the car on the rounds I’m not doing.”
Talking to MN in his native Sweden – his mother Pernilla is Swedish – and between a succession of domestic and international television interviews, Solberg Jr admitted his life had been something of a whirlwind since last Thursday’s announcement.
“Honestly,” he said, “I tell you, I can’t believe how much interest there is in this. For me, you know it’s massive, just massive. For all of my life I have remembered my dad competing in the blue and yellow of Subaru – my earlier memories are all of what he was doing in the car and the championship. You know, I even still have the blue and yellow sheets for my bed!
“OK, it’s different because this isn’t the WRC, but ARA is a really big deal and rallying is really growing out there and for me to be with Subaru Motorsports USA, the best team in America is brilliant.
“But, you know all this talking is making me want to drive. At the bottom of this new deal is the chance to go and drive one of the best rally cars in the world on some of the best roads in the world. I want to go now!”
The Vermont Sportscarprepared WRX STI Solberg will drive on six rallies this season is actually more powerful than the version his father used to clinch all five of his Wales Rally GB wins and his 2003 world title.
Higgins said: “It’s very cool to have a Solberg driving a Subaru again. A generation of rally fans grew up watching Petter doing incredible things in a blue and yellow car with gold wheels – to see that Solberg name on the side of one of these cars will be mega.
“We did Wales Rally GB in a Subaru liveried the same as Colin Mcrae’s 1995 title-winning car in 2015 and the response to that was huge. People have such fondness and affection for these colours; when I heard we were going back to the blue and yellow livery for this year I was delighted.”
The Subaru Motorsports USA team has won 13 of the last 14 American titles.