1 Rally GB 2003
After celebrating his maiden World Rally Championship win in Wales 12 months earlier, Solberg made a promise to Subaru Tecnica International boss Masaru Katsurada. And Solberg delivered in Cardiff, 2003.
He smiles at the memory of a conversation with the Japanese: “At the end of the 2002 GB, Katsurada-san said to me,
‘Petter, more champagne. We need more champagne at the end of the rally’. I told him we would have a lot to celebrate when we came back to Wales.”
Quickest out of the blocks around Cardiff ’s superspecial on Thursday night, Solberg relinquished the lead briefly on Friday morning, but fastest time in Rheola (SS4) was enough to nudge the Subaru to the top of the timesheets, where it remained until the finish. Potent a force as Loeb was at that time, he never looked like beating Solberg on an event where he and his Welsh co-driver Phil Mills looked utterly at home.
“I remember we hit a rock on the second to last stage,” says Solberg. “As I drove, I was waiting, waiting, waiting, thinking, ‘Please no...’ but we didn’t get a puncture.”
And then came Margam. If Solberg made Rally GB his own, winning for four straight years, then he really made the Margam Park stage his own. Nobody could touch his committed and insanely quick approach down the hill.
“I won that rally and the championship with Tommi [Makinen],” says Solberg. “It was a proper one. I learned so much from these incredible guys like him, Colin [Mcrae], Carlos [Sainz] and Richard [Burns]. They were the proper hard sportsmen, but they weren’t afraid to help. I never forget them and I never forget that rally. It was proper.”