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Petter Solberg

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Petter Solberg (born November 18, 1974 in Askim), from Spydeberg i Østfold, Norway, is a professional rally driver.

He is currently married to a Swede named Pernilla and together they have a son named 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.

Petter won a nationwide Remote-controlled 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 competitors and Rallycross fans. He used to help out around the home farm re-building competition cars as he was not yet old enough to drive. Petter entered his first Bilcross (an "inexpensive version" of Norwegian Rallycross) 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 Hillclimbing 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 (Petter has an older brother, Henning Solberg, who has won this title 5 times in a row between 1999 and 2003). By this time, the World Rally Championship team bosses were starting to recognize Petter's potential and by the end of 1998 he agreed to drive for three years with the Ford Rallye Team. In 2000, however, Petter left Ford's M-Sport outfit somewhat early and signed with the Prodrive-run Subaru World Rally Team (SWRT). 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 team-mate Richard Burns in sneaking to the title.

In 2002, with four-time champion Tommi Makinen installed as his new team-mate in the light of Burns' departure to Peugeot, Petter Solberg won his first ever WRC event in Wales (Wales Rally GB) after a consistent display of driving prowess and an unlikely accident by fellow driver, Marcus Gronholm. In 2003, Solberg beat fellow WRC young-gun Sébastien Loeb at the Wales Rally GB, launching him to his second win in Wales and his first ever World Rally Championship title. In 2004, Solberg won five (out of 16) rallies, including the Wales Rally GB, but lost the Championship to Loeb due to an unfortunate string of bad luck that encapsulated three retirements (DNF) during the mid-season. In 2005, Solberg won three rallies, although was severely affected by bad luck while challenging for wins at the end of the season, most notably in Telstra Rally Australia, where he was forced to retire after striking a wayward kangaroo.

This year, Solberg continues his partnership with the Subaru team, driving a new version of the Impreza WRC. His main sponsor is 24SevenOffice with a $5M NOK record-breaking sponshorship deal by Norwegian standards. His results, though, have thus far been patchy in comparison to the man who usurped him from top spot in the series in 2004. While Loeb have registered five rally victories on the bounce in a privately (Kronos) run Citroen Xsara WRC, Solberg has a mere two runners-up places - from events in Mexico and Argentina - to his name. Failure to overhaul present incumbent in third, Citroen starlet Daniel Sordo would mean an end to the chain of top three drivers' championship appearances which Subaru has enjoyed since 1994.

Rally Wins

2002 2003 2004 2005

External links

References

 

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