Petter Solberg

WRC driver
Name = Petter Solberg


Caption = Petter Solberg during the 2006 Rally Australia.
Nationality = flagicon|NOR Norwegian
Years = 1998 - present
Teams = Ford, Subaru
Races = 136
Championships = 1 (2003)
Wins = 13
Podiums = 35
Stagewins = 317
Points = 404
First race = 1998 Swedish Rally
First win = 2002 Rally Great Britain

Petter "Hollywood" Solberg (born November 18, 1974 in Askim), from Spydeberg i Østfold, Norway, is a professional rally driver. He won the WRC Drivers' Championship in 2003, driving for the Subaru World Rally Team.

Career

Early career

Solberg won a nationwide RC car championship at the age of 13 as he inherited his interest of motorsport through his parents, mother Tove and father Terje, who were keen "bilcross" (an "inexpensive version" of Norwegian rallycross, similar to Swedish folkrace and Finnish "jokamiehenluokka") competitors and rallycross enthusisasts. He used to help out around the home farm rebuilding competition cars, as he was not yet old enough to drive. Solberg entered his first "bilcross" in 1992, three days after his 18th birthday and only a day after he got his driving license. He went on to become Norwegian champion in rallycross as well as hillclimb in both 1995 (winning 19 out of 21 events) and 1996 (winning 15 out of 19 events). In 1998, he became the Norwegian Rally Champion (older brother Henning won this title five times in a row between 1999 and 2003).

WRC career

By this time and the aid of his compatriot John "Mr Škoda" Haugland, who helped him on events in the late 1990s, [cite web |url=http://www.hauglandmotorsport.com/uk_cv_john.htm |title=WINTER RALLY SCHOOL, John Haugland, Norway |accessdate=2008-02-20 |work=hauglandmotorsport.com ] the World Rally Championship team bosses were starting to recognize Solberg's potential and by the end of 1998, after winning a comparative test drive, he agreed to drive for three years as a junior pilot for the Ford Motor Company. Initially expected by Malcolm Wilson to maintain a somewhat lower profile, Solberg actually became a nominated points-scorer for Ford on, of all events, the gruelling test that was the Safari Rally in early 1999, after usual understudy to the team's star driver Colin McRae, Thomas Rådström, suffered an injury and was subsequently ruled out from taking part.

2000s

In 2000, however, Solberg was able to leave Ford's M-Sport outfit prematurely, due to an insufficient contract, to sign with the Prodrive Subaru World Rally Team (SWRT), then led by a driving staff of Richard Burns and Juha Kankkunen. His first podium had to wait until the Acropolis Rally, Greece the following year, as an altruistic Solberg forsook as many of his own points as possible, as he did in dropping voluntarily from 4th to 5th in Sanremo, to assist his senior team-mate Burns in sneaking to the title.

In 2002, with four-time champion Tommi Mäkinen installed as his new team-mate in the light of Burns' departure to Peugeot, Solberg won his first ever WRC event in Wales (Wales Rally GB) after a consistent display of driving prowess and an unlikely accident by Marcus Grönholm. In 2003, Solberg beat fellow WRC young-gun, Citroen-mounted Sébastien Loeb at the Wales Rally GB, launching him to his second win in Wales and his first (and to date, only) World Rally Championship title.

In his title defence, however, Solberg's winning of five of a possible sixteen events, including the hat-trick making Wales Rally GB, proved insufficient to deny the title to a now increasingly efficient Loeb. On Solberg's part, a perhaps unfortunate string of bad luck was encapsulated by three DNFs (retirements) in mid-season. Welcoming a new team-mate for the year in Australian Chris Atkinson, who replaced the disappointing Finn who had been the former Champion's SWRT team-mate throughout 2004, Mikko Hirvonen, Solberg started his 2005 season brightly as he sought an immediate answer to Loeb, the Norwegian winning two of the first three events, in Sweden and Mexico. These successes coincided with the early seizing of a championship lead. He was, however, soon overtaken by a rampant Loeb, and was left to score 71 points for the year, pipping Peugeot's Marcus Grönholm to the championship runner-up spot on a tie break. He added an unwanted Wales Rally GB win after the death in a day three crash of fellow competitor Markko Martin's co-driver, Michael Park, with Loeb sacrificing his victory on the road in order to avoid having to simultaneously celebrate the title.

Solberg won three rallies in all, though was severely affected by bad luck while challenging for wins at the end of the season, most notably on the Telstra Rally Australia, where he was forced to retire after striking a wayward kangaroo.

For 2006, Solberg continued his partnership with the Subaru team, driving a new version of the Impreza WRC. His main sponsor was 24SevenOffice with a 5 million kroner sponsorship deal, a Norwegian record. His results, though, proved patchy in comparison to Loeb. While Loeb went on to register five rally victories on the bounce in a privately (Kronos) run Citroën Xsara WRC, his winning of the title unhampered even by breaking his arm at an advanced stage of the season, Solberg could only comparatively muster a handful of runner-up places on rallies all season - in Mexico, Argentina and Australia. Failure to claw his way any higher than sixth in the year's final points standings duly brought an end to the chain of top three drivers' championship appearances which Subaru had enjoyed since 1994.

2007 season

The Norwegian did, at least, get his 2007 season off to a rather more auspicious start, managing a joint-career-best finish of sixth place on the Rally Monte Carlo. He surrendered a potential third place finish in Sweden after a substantial time loss, [cite news |url=http://www.crash.net/motorsport/wrc/news/143056-0/official_petter_withdrawn.html |title=Official: Petter withdrawn. |date=2007-02-10 |accessdate=2008-02-20 |publisher=Crash.net ] as well as being bested by his brother, Henning, in the race for the final podium place on the siblings' home event - Rally Norway. [cite news |url=http://www.crash.net/motorsport/wrc/news/143405-0/henning_carries_stobart_to_maiden_podium.html |title=Henning carries Stobart to maiden podium. |date=2007-02-18 |accessdate=2008-02-20 |publisher=Crash.net ] In Mexico, Argentina and Sardinia Petter struggled with his Impreza - technical problems caused two retirements and a plummet down the leaderboard in Italy. [cite news |url=http://www.crash.net/motorsport/wrc/news/144271-0/news_flash_petter_retires_from_leg.html |title=NEWS FLASH: Petter retires from leg. |date=2007-03-09 |accessdate=2008-02-20 |publisher=Crash.net ] [cite news |url=http://www.crash.net/motorsport/wrc/news/147464-0/news_flash_petter_out.html |title=NEWS FLASH: Petter out. |date=2007-05-05 |accessdate=2008-02-20 |publisher=Crash.net ] [cite news |url=http://www.crash.net/motorsport/wrc/news/148229-0/petter_i_simply_couldnt_attack.html |title=Petter: I simply couldn't attack. |date=2007-05-19 |accessdate=2008-02-20 |publisher=Crash.net ] Good pace in Portugal [cite news |url=http://www.crash.net/motorsport/wrc/news/145618-0/petter_more_to_come_from_07_spec_impreza.html |title=Petter: More to come from '07 spec Impreza. |date=2007-04-02 |accessdate=2008-02-20 |publisher=Crash.net ] and taking third place on the Acropolis Rally at least appeared to mark a turnaround in the quality of the younger Solberg's results, although even Greek event wasn't problem-free for the Norwegian as he experienced some damper problems. [cite news |url=http://www.crash.net/motorsport/wrc/news/148936-0/damper_issues_drop_petter_to_third.html |title=Damper issues drop Petter to third. |date=2007-06-02 |accessdate=2008-02-20 |publisher=Crash.net ]

even though the Norwegian hit a rock in the morning and again had some minor driving issues. [cite news |url=http://www.crash.net/motorsport/wrc/news/157838-0/solberg_helps_subaru_reclaim_third.html |title=Solberg helps Subaru reclaim third. |date=2007-12-02 |accessdate=2008-02-20 |publisher=Crash.net ] This result allowed SWRT to reclaim third place in Manufacturers' Championship.

Petter Solberg ended the 2007 season in fifth place. [cite news |url=http://www.crash.net/motorsport/wrc/news/157837-0/final_world_rally_championship_standings.html |title=Final World Rally Championship standings. |date=2007-12-02 |accessdate=2007-12-17 |publisher=Crash.net ] He also took part in the 2007 Race of Champions, representing Norway, along with his brother, Henning. [cite web |url=http://www.raceofchampions.com/drivers_history,21,2007,2.html |title=RACE OF CHAMPIONS - 2007 Wembley Stadium - the drivers |accessdate=2008-02-20 |work=raceofchampions.com ] He didn't manage to win the first race with David Coulthard, but in Nation's Cup Norwegian brothers made their way to the semi-finals.

2008 season

For 2008, Solberg and Atkinson were retained by SWRT as driving staff. A radical new hatchback homologation of the long-serving Subaru Impreza, the WRC2008, debuted on the Acropolis Rally, marked by the Norwegian collecting a runner-up spot to Loeb.

WRC victories

:

WRC results

Family

He is married to a Swede, Pernilla Walfridsson, with whom he has a son, Oliver. Pernilla is the daughter of former Volvo factory driver and 1980 European Rallycross Champion, Per-Inge "Pi" Walfridsson (who also claimed a remarkable 4th overall in the 1973 RAC Rally). She was also, for some time, rated as possibly the world's fastest female rally driver.

References

External links

* [http://www.pettersolberg.com/ pettersolberg.com] - official website
* [http://rallybase.nl/index.php?type=profile&driverid=90 Petter Solberg's profile] at [http://rallybase.nl RallyBase.nl]